Lilith's Journal
by BrownPizza7
Summary: "My name is Lilith Parker, and I'm moving to Trolberg. I don't know what it's going to be like or if I'll make any friends there since I'm the "new kid", but I hope that at least while I'm there, there will be some adventure for me to find."
1. November 11th, Sunday (My Name)

_Dear Journal_

People always tell me it's hard to start a new journal or diary. You just don't know where to start sometimes. Should you introduce yourself? Write down what you're currently doing? Maybe you should explain where you live? To some people it's easy, they just put words down on paper and begin to write, but others just don't know where to begin their story. Not all of them, obviously, but a majority do.

Luckily for me, I haven't had that problem, or at least not yet. As a newbie writer that wants to become a successful author one day, I try my best to think of where it's best to start my stories. Whenever I have trouble writing, I just sit back for a few minutes, think about my story for a bit, and then get right back to it. I've had tons of journals written to their final pages over the years thanks to this process, so I think I know how to begin one.

I used to have another journal I was writing in before this one, but I threw it out after I found out something that was going to change my life. I found out a while ago that I was moving to Trolberg, and the moment that happened, I ripped out a new blank notebook and began to just write in it.

To anyone who's reading this and doesn't know about Trolberg, well let me fill you in on it. It's a city that was built a long time ago in a troll infested area, and they made walls to keep them out. It's pretty far away from Newport (my hometown) and it's kind of a big deal to tourist because a lot of stuff happens there.

But anyway, enough about that stuff, let me tell you how I actually found out about the move.

I found out about this whole move two days ago during dinner. It happened on a Friday and we were winding down from school and busy finishing our homework at the dining room table. We had spaghetti and meatballs that night with some Pepsi for a drink, and my brother was making a huge mess, as usual.

My babysitter, Lauren, was chatting on the phone with my parents at the time instead of eating the stuff she made for us. Lauren was that kind of girl that you would take one glance at and think she came straight out of a magazine cover. She had long gorgeous blonde hair, with a slim body and pretty face to go with it too. She looked like a typical bully character from T.V show depicting high school girls, but unlike the T.V shows, Lauren was actually really nice and kind to us instead of a huge bully.

So, Lauren was talking to my parents who were out for the night. They weren't there because they were going on a "date", but I now know that they were just getting some paperwork done to confirm that we were leaving Newport and never coming back.

I was just pouring a bottle of Pepsi into my glass when I heard Lauren say something very peculiar.

"You sure you don't want to tell the kids now?" I remember her trying to whisper, "I just don't think it's a good idea to hold off until the last minute."

Her choice of words interested me enough to ask what she was talking about, and after a few failed attempts to hide the truth from me, she spilled the beans.

My brother didn't take the news to well and threw a huge tantrum, but I just shrugged and continued eating my meal in silence. I wasn't all that upset because I already have been to Trolberg a lot. We had friends and family living in there and we went to visit them a bunch of times. I already knew the layout of the city, and all of the activates they did there. So I wasn't really scared at the time about moving.

But after dinner, when I laid in my warm and comfy bed and started thinking about it more, there were a couple of problems that sprang up in my mind. If we moved, that meant I had to say goodbye to all my closet friends. That included Ashly and Nina, who've been my best buddies ever since we were babies. We always did everything together, and if we went away, I would never really see them again. I mean, I knew that even if we moved we could still contact each other by phone, but Trolberg was a pretty long drive away from Newport, and I don't know if their parents would be okay with them going to visit me in a huge place like that.

Another thing that bothered me was that I would have to make new friends over there. Even though I've been to the city a bunch of times, I didn't really know any kids my age that lived there. I never talked to them because they all seemed weird to me. I mean, there weren't crazy or anything, but they just didn't seem like my type. I loved to write and draw and dream of other worlds to explore where adventure and fun never stopped. None of the other kids really liked the things I did though, and I never really liked the things they did either. There were a couple of kids I knew there, but I wasn't close enough to really hang out with them.

Then there was the problem of my brother, oh boy it was going to be tough having him there. My brother has been to Trolberg before, but he never seemed to like it there. He hated everyone except for my grandparents who also lived in the city, and never talked to anyone. Being the only other sibling in the family, I knew my parents would count on me to show my brother around and make him some new friends, the only problem was he had hundreds of friends here, and I knew it was going to be a long time before he found anyone there that fit his style.

Still, even with all of the potential problems, I'm always excited to go somewhere new and fresh. I've lived in Newport for about my whole life, and it would be nice to have a change of scenery. I practically know all the people who live here. It was going to be tough on moving day when I had to say goodbye to everyone and everything here.

But who knows? Maybe something exciting will happen at Trolberg, a place where adventure and fun might never stop. Or at least, I hope so.

So stick around whoever's reading this, because I think I got a lot of future stories to tell.

 _From a_ _Hopefully Upcoming Author_

 _Lilith Parker_

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My name (or username) is BrownPizza7, and this is my first time ever uploading a story to fanfic. One of my closest friends recommended that I try it, so I am. For those who come wanting to find an exciting plot and badass characters, this story is definitely not going to be like a pro novel or anything like you expect. It's just going to be a cute little story of this girl living in Trolberg and going on adventures. I hope you all like the first chapter, and I'm writing more as I type this down. If you want to leave a review, be my guest, I would love to hear your thoughts.

So have a good rest of the day, i'm going back to typing my future stories.


	2. November 12th, Monday (The Truth)

_Dear Journal_

I just finished my homework a few minutes ago (stupid fractions), so now I barely have enough time to write everything down that happened today. Mother hasn't called me for dinner yet, so I have a few moments to write stuff in my journal. It's going to be a really awkward dinner because of what happened today.

While me and my brother were getting ready for school this morning, our parents finally found told us when the big move was going to take place. My parents sat me and my brother down in the living room and spilled the beans about everything. We're apparently leaving Newport on Thursday this week. That means I only have two days to pack all my things, say goodbye to everyone I know here, and make the most of my last few days in this small place.

It's certainly much sooner than I would've expected, but I couldn't really do anything about it. All I do know is that there is no stopping this move. My parents have signed the required paperwork which has since been filed, and they've already spent a ton of money into the home we're going to live in, so there was no turning back now. They did all of this without telling me or my brother, for two whole weeks.

I'll admit, I was really upset when they told us this. Not because we were moving away so suddenly, I learned that information on Friday from Lauren, but because they didn't trust me enough to tell me. I would've been okay with it all, if only being a little sad about leaving my friends, but the fact that they straight up lied to my face about this for two weeks just made me angry.

My brother got very upset by this more than me and ran to his room to cry. I can still hear him sobbing as I write all this stuff down which is unsettling, to say the least. Anyway, my father went after him to try and calm him down as mother stayed behind and tried to explain to me why we were leaving.

"It's just that me and your father have gotten a great job opportunity in Trolberg," I remember her saying sadly, "it pays nothing like the jobs we currently hold here and… we just think it's time to make a change."

"But why do we have to leave our home for some silly job choice?" I said, and I'll admit, I whined just a bit.

"We just want to provide for you and Ethan and make sure you succeed, and there aren't many chances for that here in Newport sweetie."

"I have friends here though mom! I don't want to leave them to go to some walled-off city with trolls patrolling it constantly. I want to stay with my friends!"

I remember my mom looking quite sad and rubbing her eyes. She seemed conflicted as she talked to me, like she was reconsidering the choice of leaving her hometown as well.

"I know Lilith, I know you do, and it pains me to know you'll be leaving them. I wish we didn't have to leave to but… Newport isn't the same as it once was, and me and your father think it's time to go. We understand if you don't agree with it, but we think this choice will help all of us in the long run. I promise you, it will be better once we get there."

The whole time as my mom was telling me this, all I could think about was how my friends would react to the news when I told them. I haven't called them yet because I'm too afraid to pick up the phone and tell my closest partners that I was leaving them to go off to some mystical city far away. I tried to call them once after school ended, but when I picked it up, the phone literally felt like a hot, ticking time bomb waiting to explode if I dilled their numbers, so I just put it back and went to draw in my book.

I know I'm acting just like my parents waiting to tell my friends about the move, which really upsets me. I don't want to wait, but I feel like if I told them, the next two days from now would be filled with sadness in the air as we hung out together. I bet that's how my parents thought as they were planning the whole thing. I bet they didn't want me and my brother to worry. But now I'm worrying more than ever because I have such a short time frame to tell them.

I'm also worried about how my teachers would respond to us finally leaving. I didn't tell anyone of them at school as they taught the lessons I was supposed to write down. The teacher I'm most afraid of telling is Ms. Adams, my science teacher. She's really funny and kind to all her students, even the… rude ones in class, and she always hands out peppermints whenever someone answers a question right. But the main reason I'm afraid of telling her because she is one of the most sensitive adult out there. Me telling her that I'm leaving her class to be taught by someone else would be like if I told my mother and father if I killed my brother in his sleep without permission.

Wait… that's a weird comparison.

Anyway, with all that aside, and everything I found out today, I just had to write my thoughts down. I looked in the previous entry of my journal, where I talked about how excited I was to go to Trolberg and how "magical" it might be. Well, I just might have been wrong about that assumption. Now I'm more scared than ever to go there. Going there means I leave everything I know behind and start off fresh. All my friends know me as a funny, social and polite person, but if I went away and lived in Trolberg. all of the kids would instantly target me as a nerd because I write stories and stuff.

I hope none of that happens though, and I'm able to tell my friends soon. I just don't want to upset them. It will be hard, but I have to do it. Even if the next to days are filled with gloom and sadness.

 _Your Anxiety Filled Writer_

 _Lilith Parker_

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Hope you liked this short chapter into Lilith's thoughts! Writing more as we speak. Please review if you get the chance.


	3. November 13th, Tuesday (Nina and Ashly)

_Dear Journal_

I'm currently writing this entry in my room, surrounded by the glow and the dark stars stuck on my ceiling radiating with light. It's seven on the dot right now, and mother just came into my room because wants us to pack early for the move, but I haven't started. I'm busy planning something else, which I'll reveal later in this entry.

Today is, or was Tuesday, leaving one more day left of freedom until I eventually have to leave my hometown. The week is going by so fast that I can't even process it yet. It felt as if Sunday and Monday had never existed, and I just teleported further into the week without realizing it yet.

The day started off normal. Okay, not really that normal, but as normal as most of our days go. I woke up, brushed my teeth, quickly got dressed, and organized all my stuff in my backpack. While I did this though, I couldn't stop thinking about how different things would soon be once we left and moved to Trolberg. I mean, I would be doing the same routine of course, but I would be doing it in a different house, with different friends and school to look forward to.

When I got out of my room, I saw that Ethan was sulking as he got ready for school again. When I came out and waved to him shyly, he just nodded glumly and went back to tying his shoelaces. He wasn't taking this move well at all, and it was getting more apparent because he wasn't even bothering to look at mother and father when they talked to him. I just couldn't help but feel bad for him.

I haven't really thought of how this move affected him as much as I should have. I might be leaving Ashly and Nina, but Ethan was leaving twice as many more people behind than I was. While me and him are siblings, it felt like the friends we made were more closely related then both of us. Which is sad when I think about it. Me and him obviously loved each other, but we never really were close like we are with our friends.

Anyway, once me and Ethan finished getting ready, we quickly said goodbye to our parents and went out. Mother tried to give Ethan and reassuring hug, but he shrugged it off and walked further down the sidewalk.

It physically hurt my heart to see my mother close her eyes in sadness.

I hugged both of my parents quickly to hopefully soften the blow of that reaction and ran to catch up with my brother.

We walked down the street of our neighborhood to get to school. It was cold out when we walked, which wasn't very surprising considering it was mid-November. The wind blew in twisted motion causing my hair to fly up and certain times during our walk. Many of the leaves at this point have fully changed color, making trees produce a warm orange and gold glow to the streets. It was such a pretty sight, but it only added to my growing sadness knowing I would soon leave the quiet street

We were about a few blocks away from our school when Nina came up to me. We had passed her house and I guess she saw me, so she came out quickly to walk with us. I didn't see her at that point, which is why when I wasn't paying attention when she jumped me.

"WHAT'S UP LILY!" she shouted into my ear.

I remember jumping back in shock, ready to fight back against whoever attacked me before I caught the pink dyed strands of Nina's hair. She was smiling and giggling like crazy when she saw my face, which must have looked shocked and surprised.

"Gotcha!" she said smiling, "bet you didn't see me coming huh?"

I managed to nod and choke out a giggle before I responded.

"Yeah," was all I was able to say before looking away.

The moment I turned my head away, I knew I made a jerk move. Not that I meant to of course, but I just did on accident because I couldn't look at Nina so happy while knowing I would be leaving her soon. I felt like I would be lying to her face if I just pretended everything was fine. I was already shunning my closest friends away without realizing it.

She didn't seem to notice my attempt to end the conversation though, because she kept talking again.

"Your expression was priceless you know? I almost burst out laughing when I saw how white your face was."

She smiled and laughed while she did this. She seemed so happy and positive, which just made me feel worse. I wanted to laugh with her and smile like I usually did whenever she pranked me like this, but all I could muster was a smirk. I couldn't stop thinking about how hard it would be to tell her that I was leaving town.

I tried to keep my face up and pretend not to notice, but this just seemed to confuse Nina, who I remember staring at me strangely.

"Hey, you okay? Did I scare you so good that you went deaf?"

She snapped her fingers near my ears to see if I was hearing her, and it was only then when I finally talked to her.

"Yeah I'm okay," I answered her, "I was just daydreaming."

"About what?" she answered happily, "Money? Amusement Parks? Birds?"

She then glanced side to side, as if she was looking to see if anyone would overhear her before she whispered into my ear…

"Boys…?"

I pushed her away playfully and for the first time after the announcement of the move, laughed out loud. It warmed me up inside

"Heck no, I wasn't thinking about any of those things. I'm not crazy like you."

"I'm a good kind of crazy though right?" she said smiling.

At this point, my brother had left me and traveled further down the sidewalk to get out of the conversation, which meant me and Nina were left all alone to talk about anything. If I was a confident person like Ashly, I would've told her about the move right then and there, let all the emotions bottled up inside me come pouring out. Maybe she would've understood if I told her, but I didn't and just stayed silent, trying to fake a shiny smile.

"You're the perfect kind," I answered.

"You know I am," she said laughing.

We talked for a bit while walking to the school… okay, well more like Nina was the one talking. I was walking silently beside her, only occasionally responding to her questions and laughing with her like an idiot. I would've told you what we talked about, except I was so deep in thought at the time that I didn't really hear her.

We got to the school quickly, which silently stood in the cold briskly air. The door looked warm and welcoming, and once we got into our school, a huge wave of memories just crashed into my body. There were hundreds of kids walking around the hallways, standing near lockers, talking with their friends, some of them actually studying for a future test. Seeing all the students walking around talking loudly, with their different colored clothing and personality, just made me want to weep about how much I would miss this school. This place that I used to complain about so much…

Our parents told us yesterday that I would be enrolled in Alhberg school when we got to Trolberg. It's apparently really fancy, and you have to wear uniforms and stuff. At my school though it's not really required, the only kids who wear the school uniform from here are the entire math club, Patty Ruler, and Ashly who actually looks quite good in it. Everyone else besides them just brings what they choose to wear.

If me and Nina knew the existence of Alhberg before I was supposed to move, we would have probably made fun of it and declared everyone who went there as fancy spoiled snobs. Now that I know that I'm going there just makes me more nervous. What if I can't live up to the school's standers? Here at Newport, the school district was always laid back and didn't really try to pressure us kids with work. What if it's a whole different story at Trolberg?

While I was thinking this, Nina was talking nonstop about how crowded everything was.

"It's like a zoo in here," she said shaking her head.

"Yeah, you can barely get through the hallways," I answered in agreement.

Worrying aside, me and Nina joked around for a bit before the first-period bell rung. We said our goodbyes and went to our lockers to quickly grab our school supplies. I could still see Nina's pink hair vanishing into the crowd and couldn't help but think of how soon I would never see it again.

The more I think and write about it now, the more I realize that Nina is probably the only other kid in the world that has dyed her hair. Maybe that's not true, but most kids in my school don't even attempt to change their hair color like her. I wonder if there's someone in Trolberg who has pink hair like Nina?

So, yeah, I went to get my supplies, and race to my first period which was homeroom. The teacher there, Mr. Robin, was writing something on the chalkboard, which meant the class was busy goofing off and doing their own thing. I looked around to see if anyone I knew was there. Nina wouldn't be in the class which only left her…

That's when my stomach twisted in huge knots of mush. In the front of the class, silently taking out her textbooks, was Ashly, looking as flawless and pretty as usual.

It's hard to believe me and Nina ever became friends with Ashly since she technically looks like the definition of a snobby spoiled brat. She's gorgeous, has flawlessly glowing blonde hair, and wears the best clothes out of everyone in the school. Me and Nina were already close friends when Ashly moved into town. I know I said in another entry that Nina and Ashly were my friends since I was a baby, but I might have lied a bit about that. Yeah, Ashly moved here when we all were in fourth grade.

Because she was so pretty and rich, she quickly became more popular than the announcement of pizza for lunch. Hundreds of people swarmed her at recess asking to play with her, or just sit right next to her for a moment. She had tons of friends, but they were more like followers then people Ashly could talk to. Me and Nina were probably the only students back then who never went up to Ashly unless it was to ask for a pencil. We mostly just kept to ourselves.

One day, me and Nina were playing in the park, probably talking about something stupid, when Ashly came up to us. She had already been at the park talking with her posse when we came, so we just avoided her large group and played on our own. Her "friends" behind her looking at her confused when she came up. At first, she seemed like she was going to ask us to join her and her people, which me and Nina agreed to never accept, but surprisingly, she asked if she could hang out with us instead!

"I just don't like being in large crowds," I remember she said.

And just like that, the trio had been formed. And we never were separated since.

…Until now anyway.

So, Ashly was sitting at her desk, getting ready to work when she saw me. She smiled such an amazing smile and waved at me.

"Hey Lily!" she said happily, "how are you doing?"

Quick note, Lily is a nickname my friends have given me because it was much simpler to say then Lilith. I actually like it quite a lot so we use it almost all the time.

Anyway, I managed to nod tiredly and pretend to smile.

"I'm fine. Still recovering from Nina's scare attack from earlier," I answered.

Ashly giggled when I told her this and let me just say this right now, HER GIGGLE IS THE PUREST THING ON THIS PLANET EARTH!

I know I must sound weird or crazy writing this down, but Ashly's giggle is something me and Nina have always been jealous of ever since we became friends with her. Nina's laugh sounds cheerful, and I sound decent when I giggle or laugh too, but Ashly beats everyone when it comes to laughing. Her voice is so light without sounding like her throat is choking to death, and she sounds so sweet and innocent whenever she giggles. I

Anyway, back to the actual conversation.

"Did she get to you too? She caught me in the hallway before I made it to class."

I nodded my head and slumped into the seat next to her.

"Yeah, while I was walking to school she got me. I'm telling you, she's like a ninja."

"A very loud and funny ninja indeed Lily."

We both laughed again and my heart warmed up, which was quickly replaced with guilt and sadness to intertwine into a horrible pot of shame. It was so hard to look at Ashly smiling and pretend I wasn't going to see her again soon. I wish I had the guts to tell them, but I just couldn't at that moment, I had to wait until a good moment arrived where the blow hurts less.

I just need to make sure me, Nina, and Ashly have the best last day together, but how?

"Hey Ashly," I asked, "are you planning anything tomorrow?"

She answered me and shrugged.

"Not really. Father is out of town and mother isn't really doing anything either. Do you have something planned?"

"Yes!" I lied through my disgusting, yellow, rotting teeth, "Yes, of course, I have the entire day planned tomorrow if you'd like to join me!"

Ashly smiled and I remember her turning toward me.

"Of course I would Lily, I would love to hang out with you tomorrow. It's not like anything crazy is going on in our lives."

So that was one girl down, and after I got Ashly's approval, I knew I had to get Nina on board. Which didn't take very long at all actually, I met Nina again in third period, and she agreed quicker than a moth to a flame.

"Hell yeah I'll party with you! What are we doing? Are we going to the dock to fight salt lions? Or are we going to try and look for trolls?"

So with Nina and Ashly's agreement, I have an entire day to do whatever with them. But I had to find out what I would actually do with them. We could always play in the park, but that kind of sounds lame. Hanging by the dock would be cool, but salt lions are a big threat in Newport and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them came out to try and bite at us.

I knew I had to find something exciting that wasn't dangerous. Nina loves to go on adventures and quest like the energetic spirit she is, but Ashly is more kindred to sitting down and taking in the environment and stuff. I tried to think of what to do, but as the day went on, I thought I would never get my answer…

Until the seventh period that is, when I had Ms. Adams for class. The clock was ticking slowly and I was running out of time to think of something to do for tomorrow when Ms. Adams passed out flyers. She seemed very excited, and her messy frazzled brown hair was looking way crazier than usual.

"It's really going to help the community, and it's always a great way to pass time and watch something special before the river freeze over as the sci-"

I don't remember what she said after that, because when she passed the flyer over to me, I instantly locked onto the huge imprinted words and knew what we were going to do tomorrow for me and my friends last day at Newport.

The Newport officials are doing something new (for once) and setting up a town parade! They're calling it "The Boat Parade" and it's going to take place at Lookout Point, which is a little neighborhood that's part of Newport with winding rivers, and canals, filled with boat owners and bridges big enough for boats to pass under.

Anyway, apparently any owner with a yacht or boat is welcome to participate. They drive their boats with decorative lights and drive them from the river to the beach, with many onlookers looking on in awe.

Ashly would adore the idea of a parade so close to her home! And Nina also is in love with parades, so I knew this would be a great choice. All I needed to do was hang out with for the whole day, secretly lead them to the parade and BOOM! It would be a party for the ages. I could even bring my family to if they really wanted to go at least.

So, when school ended, and I met up with my friends, I instantly told them what was going on.

"I have a surprise for both of you tomorrow, but you absolutely have to come in costume," I announced.

Nina groaned sarcastically and Ashly smiled.

Why bring costumes you may ask? Well, I don't know, I just find this better than coming in with our draggy looking clothing.

"I already have tons of outfits planned for the event you're doing, but I'm confused on what we should wear."

"Something, formal, or flashy, or something at least good-looking," I said.

"Why do you taunt me like this Lily? You know I have nothing fancy at all to wear!" Nina groaned

"Then just bring a Halloween costume, something at least interesting to look at."

Nina groaned again and crossed her arms.

"I guess I could always reuse my pirate outfit."

I remember Ashly clapping her hands together excitedly as she speculated on what the surprise might be.

"I'm so excited with what you had planned Lily! But why are you putting so much emphasis on it?"

I shrugged and continued to walk in silence, trying to not hint that something was wrong.

When I said goodbye to them and got home, I begged my mother to let me on the computer and check what time the parade would be starting.

It started the next day, at 7:35 pm.

We would have a lot of time to get there, at least I think so.

So that's how I ended up in my room, surrounded by the glow and the dark stars, making my costume for the boat parade. I just hope I have the courage to tell them before it.

 _You're Future Party Planner_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

 _As winter draws neaer, a new chapter of mine has finally been posted! I'm realzing how hard it is to make a journal type story without thinking about how I would type the dilougue, but I got through it._

 _Hope you all like this chapter, and there is more to come. Lilith and Hilda will meet soon, it will just take a few more chapters, so sorry about that._


	4. November 14th, Wensday (The Boat Parade)

_Dear Journal_

It's very late right now, and everyone else in the house is asleep.

I'm sitting on my bed, wearing the same costume I brought for the parade, writing down what happened today. The sound of music and cheers can still be heard out my window every now and then, making me think the parade is still alive and kicking…

I never thought I would have so much trouble writing and a journal entry down, but I am.

I feel so ashamed at the moment, like I just backstabbed everyone I cared about in one single word. It was so hard to tell my friends I was moving, and now it's even harder to write these words down. I have to though, I just have to.

I woke up feeling refreshed and alive, bursting with excitment about what the day would bring me soon. I threw open the window and breathed in the warm air. The sun was shining and heated the Earth, shooing away the bitter cold that had invaded Newport for the past weeks. Everything felt brand new and fresh. I went into the living room and got changed quicker than anything you could imagine. I didn't bring my puffy jacket with me because it was warm outside and I thought I didn't need it. I just wore a bright white tank top and some jeans with boots secured tightly on my feet.

My costume was hidden away in my bedroom for the parade, I stayed up late a bit just to finish the final touches. At first I cried because of how gorgeous it looked, but now, all I want to do is tear it to shreds or throw it out because of all it reminds me of.

While I was getting ready, Ethan came out of his room and noticed my over joyous attitude. It must have been concerning enough for him to approach me and ask me what was wrong.

"You're acting really weird, what happened?" he said.

"Oh nothing, I'm just planning the best last day ever with my friends," I answered while organizing my backpack.

My brother rolled his eyes and begin putting on his jacket. I didn't think much of it back then, but now while I'm writing this down, I realized how much of a jerk I must have sounded to him saying that.

"Did you tell them about the move yet?" he asked.

When he said that, my heart kind of froze in the moment, maybe in fear or worry, but I don't really remember. I answered truthfully. My brother would have seen through my lie anyway if I attempted it.

"No," I admitted, "I'm waiting for a good opportunity to tell them."

I was just putting on my earrings when I noticed my brothers face, he seemed angry and upset and my inaction which I didn't blame. Wasn't I mad at our parents for the same thing?

"Don't wait too long sis, it just makes it hurt more."

In that moment, I felt aggravated at my brother. Mostly because he was telling me how to deal with my friends his way. I definitely should have listened thinking back on it now, but I was very happy about what I had planned and for my brother to try and lecture me for no reason (back then anyway) kind if pissed me off.

The truth is, I knew I should have told them days earlier, maybe even when the move was announced I should have told them. Hell, I haven't even told my teachers yet about it, which sucks because we're leaving Newport early tomorrow and I won't be able to say goodbye to them. I know I was being a wimp or loser for not calling them, but I just had to wait for a time before I could muster up the courage.

Once we got dressed, our parents hugged us goodbye and we went to school. Or, at last my brother did. I on the other hand instantly abandoned my brother with his friends and ran to Nina's house to walk to school with her. We agreed to wait for Ashly so we could all walk together as part of our Wednesday plan.

Nina's house wasn't that far from mine actually. It was just a couple of streets away, so it didn't take long at all when Ii arrived, I saw Nina already sitting on one of her porch chairs, looking around waiting for us. The moment I approached the house, she sprang up and ran to hug me.

"There she is! Lily Parker arriving in style!" she laughed, "what took you so long?!"

"Family issues," I answered, "nothing to serious."

"Good, because I am ecstatic about our plan today. Nothing is going to ruin it right?"

"Nothing," I repeated smiling, even though I knew full well about how bad this night was going to be once I told them the truth about everything.

I joined Nina on the porch and we waited for Ashly to make an appearance. It wasn't that surprising that she took a while to come since she lives far away in Lookout Point. While we waited, we joked, talked about boys (gross), and just laughed our butts off.

My heart swelled up as we talked about things I've forgotten I loved. She told me about the different books she used to read and recommended I get them. People would usually take a quick glance at Nina and assume that reading would be the last thing on her mind with how she looks and acts, but she's actually quite the bookworm and it's one of the reason I'm close friends with her.

"Have you finished reading "Enchanted Light" yet?" I remember asking Nina.

"No, I've been too busy writing a book report on a stupid three-hundred-page book called The Wonder of Modern Medicine".

I didn't know how to respond until I laughed out loud, and almost thought I screwed up until Nina started laughing with me.

"Oh my goodness you're lying!"

"Yeah, you're right. It's called something else, but I forgot or was too lazy to remember."

"Hope you were able to finish it," I said looking toward the street.

"I almost have, it was actually quite easier than I thought. I wish we were able to choose the books to write reports on though."

I looked toward her, expecting to see her smile or laugh or something like she always does. She was stone faced though, looking off into the sky as the wind blew her bright pink hair. Maybe she was thinking about something serious that related to books.

I repositioned myself at the chair because now my butt was getting uncomfortable.

"What would you have chosen if you could?" I asked.

Nina looked down and snorted. She buried her face into her pale hands and shook her head. I almost thought I made her mad because I was about to apologies, but then she looked up at me.

"Promise me you won't laugh," she answered.

"Why would I laugh at you?" I asked, acting almost confused.

"Because it's dumb!" she laughed.

"No it's not! I wouldn't ever think something you do or read is dumb. I promise you can tell me and I won't laugh in your face."

She looked up, I remember her smiling at me. It was one of the friendliest smiles she ever gave me.

"Promise?" she asked.

"Promise," I said.

With that, she eventually told me.

"It's called the "The Great Giant Mystery", it's a story about a girl who finds one of the earliest giants in the world and goes on an adventure to find out what happened to his kind,"

She looked down at this point, probably reflecting about the book.

"I remember reading it when I was six and… it just kind of stuck with me when I got older."

Even though I never heard of the book, it sounded like an interesting read. I try to read as many things as I can find to improve my writing, and it seemed like that book could've helped me. So I asked more about it.

"Do you have it with you?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's tucked away in some cluttered vortex in my room. Why? You want to read it?"

I blushed and turned away to look at one of her trees in her front lawn.

"Yeah, it sounds really interesting and… I really… like the sound of reading a story about a girl going on an awesome adventure with a giant."

"The girl is pretty cool in the book. 'll try and get if for you if I can."

It felt good to talk normally with Nina, even if it was about something as boring as books.

So, after a few minutes, Ashly came over, looking as great as yesterday.

"Finally you're here!" Nina called out, running up to hug her, "you took so long I swear I was starting to lose brain cells."

"I apologies for how long I have kept you guys waiting.," Ashly said, "It was a really long walk from Lookout to here."

"Don't worry about it that much. It gives us the perfect chance to escape with how late we are." I answered, smiling devilishly.

I remember Ashly looking very conflicted as we discussed what we were going to do. It was very likely that she had never skipped school before, and at the time I was nervous to. I had always attended school no matter how late I was, but for this plan to work though, we had to ditch our classes in order to spend the whole day hanging out together.

We quickly walked away from Nina's house and once we did, started our (or my) final Newport tour.

The first stop we made was in Old Town. It was a little neighborhood far away from everyone else in the town. It was built a long time ago by the ancestors of this place who used to live here before the town expanded. It might have looked pretty once, but now all the houses lay in a constant state of decay. Beyond repair at this point.

We mostly goofed around in between the houses and dared each other to enter the decaying homes. Nina almost did it at one house but ran back when she claimed she saw a ghost. We laughed at how silly she was and continued to roam around.

There was one point where we crossed paths with a collapsed home. It was withering and smoldering still, like it had caught on fire. It looked so pathetic lying there in a disastrous heap of junk, filled to the brim with broken pieces of woods and cracked dirty windows. I went near the house as Ashly and Nina talked.

I was scanning the pile of debris when something caught my eye. It was shining, and yellow. It stood out so much with the dark and ugly ruin it was set in. It was so bright, so much so that I was surprised Nina and Ashly didn't see it. But I did, and I was going to take it. I picked it up and it turned out to be a golden necklace with the letter " _A"_ engraved into it.

I still have the necklace lying on my desk as I write this entry. I cleaned it up when I got home and it's really shiny and pretty. I might give it to Ashly when I leave tomorrow, as a farewell gift of sorts, but I don't even know if she'll accept the gift now after what happened.

Anyway, when we left Old Town, we decided to head to Parker square. It's like a downtown area, except a bit smaller and not as busy as you would think. We mostly went there because the street had my last name which we all thought was funny. There weren't many people there at all except employee's who had to work in this place, and none of them paid us no mind. We talked for a bit, before Ashly noticed the fountain in the middle of the square.

"Oh look! A fountain! We must make a wish!" she cheered.

Nina took one look at the fountain and shrugged.

"I don't see why not, let's try it!" she said.

"Cool! Does anyone have coins or something?" I asked.

Nina looked in her pockets and shrugged. I remember quickly taking a look through my bag and only finding twenty bucks in cash. No coins at all.

Ashly smiled and held up her pocket book to reveal three shiny coins. all for the taking.

"You guys come so unprepared sometimes," Ashly said smiling.

We all took one and before I could even think about what I wanted (which I knew what I did want right away), Nina threw her coin into the fountain.

"Got another?" she asked looking toward Ashly.

Ashly, looking quite puzzled handed her another coin before Nina threw that one in as well. It made a tiny splash and sank into the bottom into the fountain.

"This is actually quite fun; can you give me one more?"

Ashly shook her head. "No! I'm not wasting my savings just so you can throw my coins away over and over again in their! We each get one now."

Nina groaned and watched as Ashly silently made a wish and tossed her coin into the fountain. I took a bit longer with my coin, because I wanted my wish to be specific. I already knew what I wanted to wish for, but I prayed extra hard and threw the coin into the fountain when I was done. The yellow polish of the coin sunk to the bottom of the fountain in a mere moments, and it was gone just like that.

"That was fun wasn't it?" Ashly announced cheerfully.

"Yeah," I said looking down into the murky water, "what did you guys wish for?"

"I literally just threw my coin into the fountain for fun," Nina said causally.

"I can't tell, if I do then it might not come true," Ashly said.

"They never do," Nina countered, "It's just some super dumb superstition someone came up."

I looked at the fountain harder when Nina said that.

I probably could write down what I wished for in here, but I won't because I still see that as breaking the rules, and besides, it's not like it's that hard to figure out what I wanted if you've read this journal so far.

We quickly left after making our wishes and went to the beach. Our beach really isn't usable because of the STAGGERING amount of salt lions that live in the water. The town might not be known for much, but it is known for being a popular breeding ground for salt lions. There were reports last year that a total of a thousand had been found in six months alone.

So even though we have a beach, we don't use it that much just because how dangerous the water is. Beside, we don't have are bathing suits anyway.

There were numerous shops that lined the way on the boardwalk though, so we explored them for fun. They ranged from hunting supplies, to kiddy toys. Me and Ashly spent and unusual amount of time taking a look at all the goofy hats the hat shop owned, and Nina admired the sharp tipped weapons for that are apparently used for hunting down Woffs…

We didn't stay in that shop for very long.

My favorite shop by far was the book store, which was still open and was run by a very nice lady named Alice. She seemed to know all the types of books we liked, from the "Enchanting Light" series (my personal fav) to Ashly's favorite "Amanda Vitol" series. The store didn't have "The Great Giant Mystery" though, which kind of bummed me out.

When we were all shopped out, we decided to spend our last few hours playing in the sprinklers in one of the parks. The water was ice cold, but Ashly and Nina were having a blast spraying each other with it. We laughed, giggled, and ran around everywhere. Ashly was smiling, Nina was laughing, and I quickly forgot about moving to Trolberg. For a few glorious moments, everyone was happy.

It didn't last though.

At this point, school had ended and kids were going home, but we decided to stop by at Barden park. It was the park where Ashly asked to join me and Nina's little group. There was an ice cream cart there, with a friendly man running it. We all got a different flavor, I spent my five bucks on Nina and me to get a chocolate swirl, and Ashly payed two bucks for a vanilla scone.

We sat on the swings devouring are sweet treats, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the shade of the trees. It felt like summer for a few moments, and I was generally calm. I can remember thinking how amazing the moment was, and how I wished it never ended.

Maybe the day would've ended different if I told them about me moving right then and there at the park while we were eating, maybe with those sweet goodies in their mouth they would have been more accepting of it. I didn't have it in my heart then to talk about it, so I figured I'd tell them at the parade.

What a big mistake that was.

I was sucking out the last remainder of the cholate goodness when Ashly spoke up.

"It's like were nine again…" she spoke softly.

"Yeah… remember all the things we did together back then?" Nina said.

I laughed as many memories conjured up in my mind. There were so many to count that I couldn't pick one.

"Remember when Nina fell off the monkey bars and we had to carry her home because she said she couldn't walk?" Ashly snickered.

I laughed hysterically at the memory, and surprisingly, Nina did to. Even though it's a sour subject she doesn't like to talk about, she laughed at it.

"I was screaming and slobbering all over the place!" Nina laughed as she licked her already melting ice cream, "god I was such a loser back then."

"Still are," I corrected smiling.

"Oh ha-ha," Nina said, "says the person who's still scared of heights."

We all laughed and went back to eating our ice cream. It was a great day so far, and everyone was enjoying it. I even had a gift I would give to Ashly before I left. Everything couldn't be more perfect at that moment.

When we were done, I told them finally about the event I had planned. I didn't spoil that it was a parade, but I told them it was going to be huge and they had to bring their costumes.

"I doubt are parents will let us out when they find out where we've been all day, so try and sneak out so we can meet."

"Where do we meet?" Ashly asked.

"By the bridge near your house. Don't let you mother see you okay?"

"Got it!" Ashly said happily.

I nodded and turned to Nina who was throwing away her ice cream cone.

"You got that Nina?"

"Oh yeah, I've been sneaking out of my house since I was two, I got it taken care of."

We all shaked on it, hugged each other, and then ran back home. I was practically flying down the sidewalk by the time I made it to my room. I opened my bedroom window carefully and sneaked inside. It was 6:50 pm by that time, so the parade would be starting soon.

I grabbed my outfit, scribbled a note on my desk to explain to mom where I was so she wouldn't worry so much, and then ran out of the house.

I changed as I ran to Lookout Point, which was hard to do, but I eventually got the colorful cape flapping behind my back, with my bright brown cowboy hat shining in the night. I wore huge cowboy boots and put on my bright orange jacket.

Yep, I was going to the parade as a vigilante cowboy.

It was a long run, but I eventually did get to Lookout. I could already see flashing lights and brightly colored fireworks being shot off. They exploded, flinging out bright oranges and red sparks into the night sky. There were tons of people walking along the river, which has a sidewalk and fence so no one could fall off as they watched the boats.

Everyone was dressed up, just like me, and hopefully Nina and Ashly. They all seemed to enjoy the parade, even though I couldn't see what the boats looked like with everyone in my way. I carefully squeezed my way past kids, dogs, and adults alike, but I managed to make it through without getting my cape stomped on. It was nighttime, and the sun has vanished completely.

Everything was so bright and warm, and… the moon was casting a gentle glow on it all. I remember a smile spreading across my face as I made it toward the bridge I asked Nina and Ashly to me on. They were probably in love with this, because I certainly was. It seemed like the perfect setting for a movie or story to be based on.

I made my way to the bridge and saw them. Ashly was leaning over the railing, smiling and talking excitedly with someone. She wore a huge dress, almost Victorian style, and her golden blonde hair lit up the night. She had tons of make up on, making her look more pretty then I've ever seen her before. She looked so happy in that moment, her hair flowing up and down and her smile lighting up everything.

Then I saw Nina.

She wore a huge black cape that snapped in the breeze. Her hat was huge, with a fake bird feather that also blew gently in the wind. She wore a mask, like a superhero mask where there are holes in the middle to make room for the eyes, it was hard plastic to. She wore Victorian level clothing, and she seemed like she was enjoying herself just like Ashly was.

The moment Ashly saw me, she ran up and gave me a big bear hug. I swear I almost died from being crushed to death.

"OH! LILY! THIS IS GOREGOUS! I DIDN'T KNOW A PARADE WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AT MY NEIGBORHOOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU PLANNED THIS!"

I laughed cheerfully and she finally let me go. I was able to get some air back into my lungs before Nina pounced on me.

"This is so. Flipping. COOL LILY! I'm so glad you convinced us to come here."

"Yeah, it was really worth the wait!" Ashly replied.

I nodded, and then I felt like my throat was choking up, and then my brain felt fuzzy. I begin to breath in and out really fast for some reason…

Then I started to cry.

I was sobbing tears of joy, and Nina and Ashly didn't waste any time comforting me with kind words and helpful thoughts. They were there for me, even though I lied to them the whole day about my move, about everything that happened in my life so far. They were still there.

"Sorry, "I said through tears, "it's just… seeing all of us happy… and together… makes me want to cry out in joy!"

"Then why the hell not! Let's do it!"

I remember that I looked up to see the brave smile on Nina's face as fireworks erupted around us. They produced a glowing light that made her face more visible in the night.

"Really?" I asked.

"Hell yeah! Lets do it! Best friends do crazy things all the time!" She said.

"Lets all do it together!" Ashly said.

So we all cheered out, and we screamed out in joy as fireworks exploded everywhere. Boats floated slowly down the canal with bright lights and loud music, and everyone… danced. We were all so happy, or at least I was. Who knows maybe Ashly and Nina hated the whole thing and just pretended to like it to cheer me up, but there was such happiness on their faces that I'm still sure they loved it.

At that point, when I was dancing with them while the parade went on, I just forgot about the move, I forgot Trolberg ever existed, and how I would have to make new friends there. I just thought of the smile on Nina's face, and the twinkling eyes of Ashly as the fireworks erupted.

After a bit of time, we decided to split away from the crowd when things got crazy. Music was blaring, and people were screaming everywhere. There was a little grassy spot on a hill that overlooked the river with the boats driving down, so we sat there.

The sun was gone, so the cold had now returned. It was chilly, but a huge warm feeling replaced my heart and didn't make me shiver. I felt so alive…

We all sat down, Ashly, Nina and I. We sat and watched the boats for I don't know how long. I grew tired, and soon the others did to. It was such a great moment though that I didn't want to leave.

But was it worth it? I spent all of this time, happily playing with them, making new cheerful memories, and they still believe I'm coming to school with them tomorrow. They don't know about me leaving them behind forever don't they? If anything, I made the situation worse. We've spent all this amazing time, and for what? To find out I was leaving soon?

"My parents are going to kill me when I get home," I remember blurting out.

Nina stared at me and with gentle eyes and scooted next to me. It was warmer when she was closer, which I know sounds weird when I write it. Ashly scooted next to me as well, and we all just watched the boats drift down the way.

"Mine to, but who cares right? Today was flipping awesome!" Nina said.

"I agree, I would rather be here with both of you than anywhere else right now." Ashly said happily.

"We are best friends after all, were never leaving each-"

In that moment, I told them right then and there. I somehow couldn't hold it in anymore. I just spat it out right into their happy and hopeful faces. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I told them.

"I'm moving…"

I looked down at the cold soft grass underneath my body when I told them the news. The wind was blowing the grass softly, causing a wave to appear across the turf. Fireworks still exploded in the sky, with hundreds of people cheering for them. They mixed and produced a rainbow-colored explosion at one point.

I could remember everything that happened the moment I said I was moving. The first thing that happened was that the warmth from Ashly and Nina vanished instantly, and I was left shivering in the cold all alone. The next thing I noticed was that Ashly and Nina were radio silent on me, they didn't say a single word.

"I'm moving away from Newport…" I said again. I had to confirm it to them.

Ashamed, I looked up to see another firework being set off. It was huge and spread across the entire dark sky, filling it with light. There was nothing but the fireworks and the colorful boats. My entire life flashed before me as I recalled all the times me, Nina, and Ashly were together. We used to sit at the docks and dare one another to go into the water. We used to eat like pigs at the restaurants here. Nina fell off the monkey bars and needed me and Ashly to carry her home.

For a second, there was nothing but memories and silence.

That's when Nina finally spoke.

"W-what?" she stuttered.

When I turned to finally face them, I felt like someone just shot me in the heart the moment I saw their eyes.

Nina was staring straight into my face with wide eyes. I could detect anger, confusion, and aggression in those eyes. She was clutching the grass tightly, I guess to hold onto something as I told her the news. Ashly wasn't looking at me, but I could see she was shocked and confused just like Nina.

"Wh-what the heck do you mean "your moving away from Newport"?" Nina said.

I breathed in and out, trying to calm myself down before things got worse. I didn't want to tell them. I wished It was all a joke so we could all laugh about it. But it was real.

"I-It means I'm moving away guys. I'm moving from Newport… to Trolberg…"

"Trolberg?!" Ashly cried, "That's like… seventy miles away Lilith…" Ashly cried.

"I know… I know Ashly… that's why I wanted to do all this... stuff for the day with you guys… so we could have… one final memory of us together before I left."

Once I finished explaining to them the whole purpose of the day, neither of them said a word to me as they processed it. Ashly came to the truth first and buried her face deep into her hands to hide the tears away.

Nina just stared though. She stared right into my eyes to see if I was lying, but I wasn't. Maybe she thought she could get some hint that I was joking or something, anything. There were no hints though, just the truth…

I waited… I waited to hear the screams and the shouts… the accusations and the blame. I waited for what felt like hours to hear them finally scream at me. They didn't though, both were silent, no one said a word. I don't know what I thought was more terrifying at the time, the fact that they were quiet, or that fact that they were about to scream at me for lying to them.

It was so quiet for a long time, I can still remember hearing the wind that blew as we sat there.

Then, after a full minute of nothing, Nina finally erupted.

"WHY! WHY DID YOU WAIT TO TELL US!? TO TELL ME!? OF ALL PEOPLE!" Nina shouted.

I remember covering my face with my eyes as the tears started to well up. All the joy we had before was long gone. The happy times were over, and now all that was left was the cold hard truth.

"I'm so sorry Nina…" I said crying, still remembering the tears on my face, "I'm so sorry I-"

"YOU DON'T GET TO BE SORRY! I'M YOUR BEST FRIEND! YOUR FIRST EVER FRIEND! WHY! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!"

I knew this would happen before I eventually told her, I knew it would be this bad. I've been dreading it for days, but I never expected Nina to get so mad that she grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at her. She was crying, shaking, she was angry, possibly enraged at my inaction to say anything. Just like my brother said it would.

"WHEN! WHEN DO YOU HAVE TO MOVE!?"

I couldn't bear to look at her face, she was shaking to much for me, crying to much for me. I couldn't stare at her this way.

"WHEN IS IT LILITH!"

"Tomorrow," I finally said, "early in the morning."

She was shaking a lot now, to the point where I felt as if her arms were about to break off if she moved away from me.

"WHY DID YOU WAIT!"

Her voice shot like thunder and lightning it was so loud. Fireworks were exploding everywhere at the time, but Nina's voiced roared above them.

"WHY DID YOU WAIT TO TELL ME LILITH!?"

My throat felt like it was stuck. I couldn't get the words out at the time. I was frozen like a deer when it senses danger, only I was right in the face of it.

"I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING IF YOU TOLD ME! WHY DID YOU WAIT!?"

I don't know why, but I stayed frozen as Nina stared at me, crying a river as I did. We didn't say anything for a bit. I was ready for Nina to hit me, or explode, or scream out loud in a fit of fury, but she didn't. What she did was much worse.

She just… stopped shaking and started to break down in front of me. Her pink hair shook along with her body.

"Why… why did you…"

Her grasp from my shoulders lessened, until she finally let go and I could finally move.

There were a few times in our life where Nina cried, most of the time she was crying because she was laughing so hard, and sometimes little streaks of tears escaped her eyes whenever she got hurt. I've never seen her cry like this though, never with so much pain and agony. It shattered my heart to see her that way, and what's worse is that I know it's my fault.

I could have run away from them in shame, I could have tried to explain to them why I was leaving, but that would be like explaining to a tree why fire is good.

"I'm sorry guys," was all I could say to them, "I'm so sorry…"

We didn't say much after that. Nina didn't talk to me for the rest of the parade, but Ashly was at least a little bit more supportive. She kept saying how great Trolberg would be and how fun it would be there for me and all that crap.

"Trolberg isn't a bad place to live," she told me.

She's wrong, Trolberg was a horrible place, it had ruined my life here at Newport, where everything was possible and I felt like my life could really change for the better. Sure, nothing ever happened here, no adventure or mystical creatures, but it was better than nothing. At least I had friends, but the entire existence of Trolberg has stripped that away from me. I can't believe my parents chose to just go there because they can get a few extra pennies from some job.

I know I'm being selfish. I know I'm just being a dumb, crazy eleven-year-old, but I still don't understand why we have to go, to leave my friends and school behind, including my true home. It's not fair at all, and my parents should know it. I won't meet anyone there that will ever be as awesome as Ashly and Nina, so why bother trying to think about making friends at Trolberg at all?

It was such a long hour of just me and my friends sitting quietly watching the rest of the celebration go on while I silently cursed myself in my mind. After the parade, Nina went home. She didn't say goodbye, she didn't even look at me when I said goodbye to her. Ashly was the only one who hugged me and told me things would be okay.

"No matter where you are, you'll always be one of my best friends,"

Those were her last words to me before she had to go home as well.

I stood there for a bit, among the celebration as the boats continued down the river. No one in the crowd seemed to really care that much, which I didn't blame them. Who in the world would have time for someone like me? They just continued to laugh and party.

After an hour of sitting there crying like a baby, I finally went home. It was a long walk, but I made it back safety and crawled through my bedroom window. When I landed inside my room. I found that most of my stuff was packed up without me. My mother, or father must have came in and just put all of my things into boxes for the move because that's what I saw when I looked around the room. Boxes were everywhere, labeled toys, writing supplies, clothes, etc.

They seemed to have got everything except my desk and my bed.

So now we now come back full circle from the beginning of this entry to the end. I still lie in my bed writing this, with my family fast asleep, and the parade dimming outside. I know this entire entry sounds whinish or crazy to anyone who's listening, but I wouldn't expect someone to really understand why I'm taking this so hard anyway.

So, here I am, surrounded by boxes of memories, leaving my hometown behind to explore a new day.

I just wish though that everything was the same as it was.

 _From_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

Okay... NOW trhis is the longest chapter in this story right now, topping in at a total of 6000 words! YAY! Long chapter for long absence am I right?

But on a serious note thogh, thank you all so much for being patient and understanding while I wrote this. A lot of things happened in my life that forced me to stop writing for a while, but i'm back and i'm so glad you all were patient and understnading enough to not complain about it. Now that I got all of my life stuff out of the way, chapter should be coming out at a faster rate, so stay tuned, because our girl Lilith should be meeting Hilda soon!

Have a good day everyone!


	5. November 15th, Thursday (Leaving)

_Dear Journal_

It's six am and I've woken up one hour early before my parents have to get up and get everything ready for the move. I'm writing this on my now empty desk, which will soon be put into a moving truck, and be transported to our new home in Trolberg, along with me, my family, and everything else in this house.

I'm still getting over the events of yesterday, with my friends, but I wanted to write this entry down before I actually made it to Trolberg. Sort of like a before and after entry, recording my thoughts before we leave, to after we leave.

Mother hasn't told me yet, but I assume will be getting to Trolberg very late because of how far away from Newport it is. I won't be able to explore that much when we do get there and to be honest it's not like I would want to. I already know what the city looks like so why bother?

As for my thoughts on what Trolberg is going to be like? I don't really know. I reread my previous entry and winced when I saw how much I wrote about hating Trolberg. I don't really hate it as much as I say I did, it's just I hate it because it's the city that's forcing me to move away from my friends. I'm sure it's not that bad, and the millions of times I've been there before weren't awful, but still… you never how it will turn out.

I'm sure I'll be able to make new friends when I eventually go to Trolberg, but I doubt they'll be anything like the ones I have here. Not really much to say on that.

I haven't seen what our house looks like yet because my parents want to keep it a secret. You'd think we bought a secret base for how excited they look whenever they talked about it in the past week. I think me and my brother would be more accepting in the situation if our parents just told us what the house looks like.

I mean if they just told us they bought a mansion or something, I can guarantee you that everyone wouldn't be asupset. But whatever the case might be, they haven't told us yet.

My final thoughts before going to Trolberg? I have no idea. I hate the thought of having to live so far from my friends, but Trolberg can always be a great place to live, so I shouldn't complain as much. I'll make new friends, and we might have our own adventures there if I get the chance. Then, I can visit Nina and Ashly, and tell them all about it.

So… with all that aside, I guess this is it. I'm moving away from Newport. My home, my friends, everything that I did here will no longer matter, or exist. Nobody except my friends will remember me and what I accomplished here, and Nina is probably so angry with me right now that I don't know whether or not she'll even care if I go.

I should have just told them the moment I found out I was leaving. Maybe then we would've not been as angry before I left them behind.

It's getting closer to seven as I write, which means I eventually have to close this journal and help my family pack up and leave. Sunlight is streaming through the same window I've always snuck out from for the past eleven years I've lived in this town. I'm actually leaving everything behind… and I don't know if I'll be able to let go of my love for this place, this town.

Someday in Trolberg, I'll make new friends, and get ahead in school, and everything will be as normal as things were here. But it won't be the same as planning the sleepovers with Nina or having tea parties with Ashly. It won't be like walking up and down the boardwalk with all the nice shopkeepers and eating like pigs at the restaurants.

It won't be like us together, playing in the park like we when we were so young…

Goodbye Newport, and goodbye to everyone here….

 _Your Troubled Friend_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

A short chapter to deliver Lilith's thoughts before moving. Next chapter will be all about the actual move! _  
_


	6. November 15th, Thursday (Trolberg)

_Dear Journal_

I'm so flipping tired right now that I feel like I could sleep four fourteen years straight. It's currently like eight thirty as write this and I should be in my bed snuggling under the warm covers, but I have to write all this down now because today was the day where I finally left Newport and moved to Trolberg.

Yep… I'm finally here.

You probably have many questions so let me answer them quickly for you. First off, I haven't met anyone here yet because we arrived late which is fine by me. Me and Ethan also won't be attending school until Monday which kind of sucks. On Saturday were all going to see our relatives and "celebrate" the big move. And finally, on Sunday, I have to go to the school with my mom to get a quick tour by the principal one of the students.

Needless to say, I have a pretty busy week planned.

Now, time to write the hardest part. How the actual move went down. I don't want to waste anyone's time by crying about it (yet) so let me just get the story started already and tell you.

So, the day started off quite busy. Once I finished writing in my journal, my father woke up and began calling the people who certified the move or whatever, to find out when the moving truck was coming to take all our things. Apparently, they were going to arrive thirty minutes late due to a "Troll related incident", so we had to wait for a bit for them.

I'm surprised he didn't punish me for being out so late at night right then and there, but he didn't say a word about it when he came into my room and began to help me pack.

My mother soon woke up and told me and my father to take all the boxes and put them outside for when the moving truck did come, so me and dad spent a little while moving heavy-duty boxes filled with junk I couldn't remember out into the open. I carried the smaller boxes containing all my stuff while dad dragged all the heavy things outside. When my brother woke up, my mother also ordered him to help.

So there we all were, pulling out boxes upon boxes with our sad-eyed neighbors watching us leave. I don't know if they were actually sorry for us leaving, or just pretending to be sorry so they didn't hurt my parent's feelings. I can't really come up with reasons right now for why they would be happy for us to go, but I guess they might have them somewhere.

Anyway, I remember putting my preserved Newport leaf collection into my backpack when at least five of Ethan's friends came over to say goodbye to him and help him pack.

I've never really hung out with Ethan's peeps before, they were way too loud for my taste, but it was heartbreaking to see them come out with all of Ethan's boxes of stuff and hugging him goodbye and everything. One of them, I think his name was Ryan, gave something to Ethan as a gift, but Ethan wouldn't let me see it because it was fragile or something. I still don't know what it is, but I don't really care. Besides, I was busy with other stuff at the time.

Ethan's guys actually helped us with quite a lot, so much in fact that my dad didn't have to carry as many things as he thought he had to.

"Those boys truly are great people," my father said smiling, "I'm glad Ethan has them as friends,"

"Yeah,' I remember saying causally, trying not to break down in front of him while remembering my friends.

We were seventy-five percent done when the moving truck finally came. It was pretty big so it was safe to assume that the boxes would fit safely inside. The man who came out was really tall. He looked tired out of his mind, maybe because of the "troll related incident" my dad told me about earlier.

He made mom and dad sign a couple more papers (as if their previous signatures weren't enough) and then started to help us put the things inside.

Eventually, some of the neighbors came to help us pack up along with Ethan's friend. I didn't know many of their names, but I knew the entire Evans family helped us, along with the Ripple family. Mr. and Ms. Dalian came up to help us out as well. Mr. Wells helped with the heavy things with my dad, and even Ms. Granit came to help my mother move things like the plants and tables outside, and she's sixty-seven years old.

I don't think she should have been out there doing manual labor with us at that age, but I guess that's in the past now.

After putting away about ninety percent of the boxes into the truck, my mom asked me if Nina and Ashly were coming over to say goodbye.

"They didn't take the idea of me moving so well,' I remember telling her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry sweetie," mom said while she put down a box full of movies, "what happened?"

I shrugged and went back to organizing my bag to pretend I was doing something important. My mother though, being a very resilient woman her whole life, came up to me and sat by my side. She was sweating from all the sunlight and boxes she was lifting and her brown hair kind of stuck to her forehead. She seemed calm, not upset like Ethan, or stressed like dad. She was completely normal as if we weren't moving away from our hometown.

We sat there, watching everyone put all our things away. It was a sad sight indeed, seeing everyone help us put our things away when we finally leave. I didn't want to look, but I did, along with mom by my side.

I remember her sighing out loud.

"Lilith, I know this must be hard on you and your friends, but you have to understand that me and your father are only trying to do what's best for you. We wouldn't be moving away if it wasn't important."

Her words to me now seemed earnest and sincere to me, but back then, while watching my brother's friends say their goodbyes while crying, and all the neighbors bidding my father farewell, I just couldn't help but get angry.

"What's so important about a stupid job opportunity?" I said, "we're leaving everyone behind, and for what? To start a new life? Our life was perfect here, we didn't have to go."

I hate myself for saying those words now, but my mother didn't seem to mind. Maybe she had been dealing with this same type of behavior from Ethan for the past couple of days that she's used to it.

I expected her to scold me or lecture me how important it was that they get the job or something, but she did something I didn't expect from her.

"I know Lilith. I don't want to leave our town either, It's the last thing I wanted to do. We've made so many great memories here and met so many amazing people that of course I don't want to go, but Newport isn't what it used to be honey. "

"What did it used to be then?" I asked.

She was silent for a few moments, thinking about the past probably. She seemed worried, stressed, like she didn't want to tell me. Eventually, though, she did.

"It used to be quiet, pretty, almost magical living here when you were a baby. Things used to be so simple, and carefree, where everything was possible. Everyone was so kind and loving to us. They still are of course but... things changed after a while. I don't want to say you're too young to understand, so I'm just going to tell you, Lilith."

And she did, she told me a lot of things I had no knowledge of or just didn't care to know. Apparently, there was a lot of things wrong with Newport that I never heard of. She told me about how bills were astronomical in price, and how it was getting harder to pay the rent. She explained that the mayor and his groupies were corrupt, disgusting jerks who have been blackmailing civilians for things I don't want to put in here cause it's gross. Shady business has been popping up and going on in other sectors of our town. Salt lion attacks were getting more frequent. Hunters came to our town often to shoot down woffs as trophies because it was freaking _legal_ to do it here apparently.

At first I didn't almost believe it, but then I thought on how many weird choices this town has made before. Throwing parades at night in a small neighborhood when people are trying to sleep, including shops to hunt down animals. Heck, I vaguely remember a long time ago when saw my mom throw a letter in the trash looking disgusted, maybe it was from the mayor.

Mom told me so many horrible and gross things that made me really think about Newport in a different light. I had no idea stuff like that ever happened, let alone happen in our town of all places.

"This is no place for children like you and Ethan to live in, do you understand?" mother said, determined to be heard, "you don't deserve to have your talents hidden away because you live in a town drowning in mistakes. I don't want to take you from your friends Lilith, but I don't want you to stay here and end up like many unfortunate souls who have no choice but to stay."

I didn't speak when she told me that, I just thought for a while about all the things that must have been going on behind me and my friends back as we had the time of our lives. Who else lived in Newport who's life must be hell? Were they wishing they would move, escape as I did now? I didn't want to leave this place, but after what mother told me, I couldn't stop thinking about it. How much really happened without me knowing?

Even now though as I write in this journal, I still wonder about the secrets of Newport I never discovered or bothered to look for. A small (really small) part of my mind kind of believes that mom was just lying about Newport to get me more excited to go to Trolberg, but I don't believe it. Mom has lied to me before, but when she talked about everything about Newport, it seemed like she was carrying so much pain with her.

I remember her saying, "Lilith, please tell me you understand,"

That's when I turned toward her and noticed tears welling up in her eyes.

It was at that moment that my selfish child mind finally woke up and saw how much sadness was in my mother's eyes. I realized how much she was leaving by moving away from her home. She was leaving everything and everyone behind as well to give me and Ethan a chance at a better life. I never really thought about how she might be feeling, leaving the place she was born and raised in. It was always dad's side of the family we visited when we went to Trolberg, but none of moms relatives have ever contacted us. There nowhere to be found. She's leaving the only place she knows…

And I was acting like a selfish kid during it all.

"I do understand mom," I said, "I'm sorry for being such a brat about all this,"

We hugged each other tightly, not letting go for a while until dad honked the car horn, instructing us that everyone was done packing and we needed to go. Mom didn't take her eyes off me though and kissed my forehead.

"Don't be," she said, "you're still a kid, and I understand that things will be tough when we get there, but don't worry, I'll be there to support you all the way,"

It really hurts to write all this down because I know what she says is true, and I feel like I don't deserve it because of how I've been acting the past couple of days. Do I really? I don't know…

After me and mom had our little hug, she quickly went inside and brought out the suitcases that we would be taking.

"Do one last check around your room and bring anything you'd like.

I nodded and ran inside the house to grab my bag.

It was so weird to walk into the house and see nothing inside it, everything was gone. The furniture was taken, the pictures were packed away, and everything else was just.. missing. Like everything vanished into thin air without us knowing. It hurt me to see everything so bare and empty. At that moment however, I was still being influenced by the things my mother told me about our town, so it didn't hurt me as much as I thought it would.

I grabbed my bag, which was filled to the brim with all my journals and stories I've made since I was five. Inside my bag was also two pictures, one of my family in front of our home, and one of me, Nina, and Ashly smiling and laughing at the school dance. I remember taking the picture out of my hand and looking at it with tears.

I decided to take everything out of my room, including the golden necklace, and went outside. I don't know what I was hoping for when I took the necklace with me, since I thought Nina or Ashly wouldn't come anyway. It was weird though, because I remember that when I took the necklace with me, I felt… something. I can't really remember it that well because of the pressure of the move, but I felt like the air was pulsing around me, even though I was indoors at the time.

Maybe it could have been the wind, but it would be fun to think if it was magic or whatever.

Anyway, when I went outside, I saw Ethan saying goodbye to Ryan, and I almost sobbed into my hands when I saw how they couldn't stop hugging each other.

"Call me every chance you get dude," I overheard Ryan say.

Ethan nodded and they did one last fist bump before he got into the car. Everyone was inside at that point except me.

But when I was about to get into the car, I heard someone screaming "WAIT!"

I turned around and actually gasped out in shock. It was Ashly, sweating like mad, her golden hair tangled, breathing like crazy. She ran all the way from Lookout to my home to catch up with me, which made me almost sob when I realized it.

"Ashly!" I called out, running straight toward her.

"LILY!" she practically screamed.

We ran right into each other, slamming into her arms in a tight embrace. We both couldn't stop hugging and crying and saying unintelligible words as we talked, until finally I was able to muster out a sentence.

"I can't believe you came!" I sobbed.

Ashly had to take a few breathes before she was able to talk herself.

"I-I wasn't going to not say goodbye to my best friend because of a little argument we had."

We both smiled and for a moment, I forgot all mom had told me about Newport. All I wanted to do was stay all over again and hang out with my friends one last time.

I looked around, expecting to see the pink haired Nina behind Ashly, but there was nothing.

"Is… Nina not coming?" I asked.

Ashly looked down in shame, and before she even told me, I just knew that Nina wasn't going to be speaking to me for a long time. I always thought I would be prepared for Nina to be mad at me at some point. But when Ashly told she wasn't coming, It was kind of hard to take in the news at first. It kind of reminds me of how Nina herself reacted to when I told her about my move.

"She was very angry with how… you handled the whole moving thing," Ashly told me, "she wished you told her sooner."

"I know," I replied, stricken with sadness in the moment, "I know I should have said something when they told me. I was just so scared because-"

Ashly cut me off.

"No, it's okay. I know the feeling myself… how hard it is to tell a good friend you're leaving. I had to say goodbye to someone close when I was moving away. Her name was Riley and we were best friends. I thought we would never be separated, but then we were when I had to leave my town behind. I thought I would never find another friend like her…"

She paused at this part, looking down while she told me all this.

"But… then I met you and Nina… and you guys became something much bigger than me and Riley."

Now, when Ashly finished her story, I knew at that moment I should've felt extremely sweet and heartfelt. Instead, I was struck with confusion and questions. I had no idea who Riley was right up until Ashly told me anyway. I mean, I knew Ashly must've had old friends in her old town, but she never told me about someone named Riley before.

"Riley?" I asked in wonder, "She was your best friend?"

"Still is," she said, "besides you and Nina anyway. I call her every now and then. I wish I could introduce you to her… but it looks like that won't be able to happen now…"

When Ashly first moved to our town, I always assumed Ashly had friends back in her old home, but I certainly never knew someone named Riley before. Even as I write this down now I'm still confused with why she kept her a secret. Maybe she didn't want her old life to get caught up in her new one. I still don't know. But even though I never knew who Riley was, I was ready to comfort Ashly, to tell her I was sorry or something for leaving her friend.

But then dad honked the horn again for a longer duration, clearly annoyed at the lost time. I didn't want to go, not yet. There was so much I wanted to do still before I left, but... I knew I couldn't do them. It just made me frustrated, and when I'm frustrated, I can't get words out so I couldn't say much to Ashly before I left, which made me mad.

Ashly saw the car and the truck, both seemingly waiting for us to say our goodbyes. I remember she sighed again.

"So this is really it huh?" she said.

"Yeah," I answered sadly.

We were both silent, nothing but the wind and the car horn could be heard. The honking of the horn eventually silenced, suggesting my mother finally told my father to stop interrupting the moment.

Even without the horn of the car distracting me, I still wanted to say so much to Ashly. I wanted to say how I would miss her, how she's amazing, and everything in between. I wanted to say so much that it would have taken hours before I got into the car, but I couldn't find the words. I was so sad, and hurt, and I just wanted to cry with Ashly for hours before I left.

Eventually, even though I didn't get to say all I wanted, I decided to do the one thing that I hoped she would like.

I took the golden necklace out of my bag and handed it to her. It still had the golden _A_ engraved inside, shining brightly in the sun like a charm. It looked so pretty, and mystical like Ashly. I knew she would love it. She always liked shiny things.

"This is for you," I said, passing her the necklace, "to remember me by."

Tears were already welling up in her eyes as I gave it to her. She was shaking and it made me feel so much guilt for leaving her.

"Oh Lily… w-where did you get this?"

She was stuttering and crying as she said this.

"I bought it from one of the shops at the boardwalk yesterday," I lied, "I thought you would like it, so I got it behind your back. Now you can see this necklace and think of me whenever times are bad."

I know, still know that there was probably no reason to lie, but I felt as if it wouldn't have meant as much if I said I found it in a burning dump in Old Town.

And it worked, Ashly looked like she was about to collapse into my arms and start sobbing, but thankfully she didn't and put the necklace on around her neck. It hung there steadily, glowing along with her bright yellow hair. She seemed to radiate with light the second she put on the necklace. I remember feeling an… aura springing off of Ashly when I gave it to her, like she was glowing. She looked amazing wearing it.

"Lily, it's more perfect then I could ever imagine. Thank you…" she told me.

We smiled for a bit, not knowing what else to say. Our conversation had ended with the exchange of the necklace, and now it was my time to leave her.

But before I could, Ashly pulled something from her pocket.

"I want you to have something as well," she said, pulling a wooden object out, "I thought… since you liked woffs and stuff, you would want this as a souvenir…"

"What are you-" I began to say, but then I saw the wooden sculpture she held in her hand.

It was a woff, carved from wood by masterful hands. There was not a crack or scratch on it at all, not even a single bump. It looked so real and magical like the real animals, but then I realized quickly that it wasn't just a sculpture. it was a wooden picture frame, and the woff was holding a picture of me, Ashly, and Nina together, smiling.

I don't remember the picture, but it looks like it was taken when we were young, maybe seven years old? I don't know, I never got to chance to ask her, but It didn't matter though, because I was about to cry all over Ashly for the amazing gift.

"Ash…" I trembled, "this is-"

"I know," she interrupted, "you don't need to say anything more… I just want you to have it… to remember us…"

My heart just broke, and I know I keep writing down how sad I've been in this journal so far, but I really just couldn't help myself this time. I just felt so much guilt for never telling them sooner, or for spending enough time with them.

It was at that moment when my dad smashed his hand on the horn of the car and poked his head out the window.

"Lilith!" he shouted, "we have to go now! Get in the car!"

I wanted to tell him to shut up for a few seconds (sorry dad), but I knew he wouldn't quit it, I had to say goodbye to Ashly right then and there.

So we did, we hugged each other tightly, still crying over everything that has happened, and said our goodbyes.

"I'll call you every day," I promised.

"I'll answer all of them," Ashly said, "I'll always be there for you Lily."

That's when I finally got into the car, and we started to leave.

In every book, movie, or comic I've ever read, they always tell you to "never look back". It basically applies to a lot of things. It never seemed like good advice to me, but I followed it for my whole life. But when I got into the car, and we started driving away… from everything, I just couldn't help myself. So… I looked out the window, and saw Ashly standing in the driveway, clutching the necklace I gave her. She was crying, and it made me want to cry so much.

And… that was it. That last time I saw Ashly in the flesh. We just… drove away, never to return I guess. I know I might meet her again someday, but it felt just so… final to me.

It was hard to focus on much after that, so I just stared out the car window as all the reminders of my past life drifted away into nothing. We passed the park where me and Nina met Ashly. We drove by the boardwalk where we used to eat dinner sometimes. We even flew by Old Town where I found the necklace in the rubble.

We drove through Newport for a while, weaving in and out of different buildings, passing many families. There isn't a lot to write about that doesn't bring out sad memories for me, so I'll just skip to the point where we reached the end of town and flew right past the sign bidding us farewell. Ethan looked behind to catch one last glimpse of the place, but I stayed put in my seat, not tempted by the urge to see my hometown one last time.

I still don't regret it.

We entered some busy highway and drove for a long time. We were surrounded by huge cars and small bikes, red trucks and blue vans. There were some cops who drove in police cruisers. At one point we past a limo. My parents kept talking during all of this, about money problems and how mom was going to look for work while dad took the interview for the job that emailed him in the first place.

I didn't really think that much in the car ride, and only paid attention when we past something interesting, which there really wasn't much of. I'll spare you most of the details of how most of the car ride went. Not much really happened except I kept clutching the woff picture frame Ashly gave me and kept thinking about Nina not showing up.

There is one part that I do want to bring up though. When we were halfway there, a bunch of woffs appeared in the sky and did a mini air show for us. It was cute, especially as they bobbed up and down through the trees and over our car with their giant heads of theirs. It was uplifting to see woffs actually flying freely in the sky rather than being shot down and collected as trophies for some of Newport sickos.

Now that I think about it more, maybe that's the reason not many mystical animals ever came near Newport like I always hoped for. They were probably afraid of getting shot and hunted by all of those disgusting men who killed creatures for fun.

A part of me was glad we were leaving _that_ part of Newport behind at least.

Anyway, I continued to look at the flying woffs until mom saw me.

"You'll see plenty of magical creatures in Trolberg you know," she said.

"Really?" Ethan said, his eyes full of wonder. I guess he was watching the woffs as well without me noticing.

"I'm sure of it, maybe you can befriend one or two,"

"I hope so," Ethan said, and I silently nodded in agreement as I watched the woffs dance around in the air.

The drive was very long, and it was only when the sun had lowered and the sky had turned orange that mom said we were almost there. After she said that, forest started to appear, and then there were just there were just a endless amount of trees for as far as my tired eyes could see.

I wonder what is hidden in the woods. I was never a type for the wilderness, but I always like the forest. It's calming and somewhat relaxing when you step in for the first time.

We arrived at Trolberg at eight. The stars were out and shining brightly in the night. I remember waking up when I heard Ethan start to mumble in his sleep. I yawned and stretched for a bit in the car until I saw the huge wall of Trolberg in front of us. We were stopped at the moment, and four other cars were ahead of us trying to get into the city.

For any other kid, seeing the walls of Trolberg for the first time would be like seeing an asteroid fall from the sky and crash into the land far away from them. I, however, seen the wall so many times that it doesn't really phase me anymore.

We got through the security when we showed them the passes and passed through the quiet neighborhoods of Trolberg. Not many houses had their lights on, suggesting that the people who owned them must've been sleeping in them. Me and Ethan looked out to see which house would be replacing our old little home back in Newport.

Eventually, we pulled up onto a quiet street filled with rows of townhouses. All of them were attached to each other but varied from a different size and shape. It kind of reminded me of my grandparents homes, which were also townhouses in the other side of town.

Our home turned out to be a modern three-story townhouse, painted white, made out of brick, and had a small attic at the very top. Small steps lead to the front door, and one of the windows held a small balcony with a fence securing it. There were no parks or trees nearby, but we were very close to the bus stop, which was only four houses down.

So I guess you could say we have unlimited transportation, as I just found out from mom that a ticket cost one dollar.

Once Dad quickly parked the car into our garage (We have that by the way) and we got all of our things that we packed into the car (the moving truck wouldn't arrive until tomorrow) we quickly went inside and searched around the place. Even though I wasn't excited about moving, I was interested in the house we were going to get, so me and Ethan made sure to look around thoroughly.

It's hard to describe what each of the individual floors had and looked like, so I'll save that for another journal entry not far from done if anyone reading this was curious what the house looked like.

I will talk about the third floor though because that's where the attic is, and where the whole family will be staying. So when me and Ethan went up, we were already tried from racing up and down the steps gasping at how nice everything looked. Once we caught our breaths we noticed that the stair case opened to a small hallway, which held three doors, and had one of those hatches on the ceiling without a cord to pull it down

I'm guessing that's where the attic is.

Anyway, mom and dad specifically told us during the drive and when we got to the house that we couldn't go exploring the attic yet, since the previous owner apparently didn't want anyone up there since they left some things behind. That instantly raised a ton of red flags to me and Ethan, but we didn't explore the attic, and it wasn't like we could, there was no cord anyway to pull the hatch open.

We decided to check out the rooms instead. Needless to say, we quickly found that the biggest room that had the third bathroom was obviously our parents room, and the door closest to the staircase led to Ethan's room. (Our rooms our in the front of the house btw if you were curious)

While Ethan explored his private headquarters, I went and explored my little home.

It wasn't as big as my old room, but it was actually quite nice. There was a bed sitting in the left side corner of the room. There was already a little desk and chair resting in front of my bed. And… here's the best part… I GOT THE BALCONY ALL TO MYSELF! I checked the view, and you can just barley see the playground on the other street from it. Other then that though, you have a pretty nice view of the street and houses belonging to other people.

And… that's it. We finally come full circle to the end. Since it's nighttime I don't have any time at all to explore Trolberg on my own, so I guess this Is where this entry ends. I promise to tell you more after I get my things together and finally get settled in, since Friday is my only free day, maybe me and Ethan can go exploring then.

It would be a nice treat.

 _Your Still Somber but Positive Traveler_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

Sorry for being inactive for so long. Writing down chapters and such, which is what your reading right now.

I wanted to ask this queston last chapter, but I felt as if it would be bogged down by all the other writing, so I think this is a good time to ask it. I've been thinking of doing this series with Lilith's journal most of the time, but I also really want her to have some of her own POV's, because sometimes, there's things that can happen she can't write down in her journal. Do you think I should include first person perspectives sometimes? Or just stick with the journal writing?

That's all I wanted to ask, and thank you so much for reading my fic!


	7. November 16th, Friday (Phone Call)

_Dear Journal_

As the time of me writing this, I've officially spent one whole day in Trolberg. Woo me I guess…

This entry is going to be rather short because not much happened today except A HUGE WORKLOAD PUT ONTO MY FRAGILE SHOULDERS!

After I woke up, me and my family had breakfast in our new dining room which was very clean because we just got there. Once we were done eating (I ate coco crisp cereal), my father stated that today was a work day. We had to bring in all our things and make sure we put it away on our shelves, or our desk, and stuff like that.

So… basically interior decorating.

We waited for the moving truck inside for awhile and did our own thing to pass the time. Ethan wanted me to go explore with him around the house, but just as he asked me, the moving truck came.

When the moving truck came, the guy told us some bad news. The first thing that happened was that three of the boxes were missing. THREE ENTIRE BOXES! My parents actually almost flipped out, but it turned out two out of the three boxes were just clothing which we could always replace.

No, the bad part is, that one other box was kitchen supplies, so we literally have nothing but forks and spoons the previous owners provided us to make our meals.

But it was whatever, we still had all our other remaining things, which the guy happily helped us carry inside. But even with the guys help, It was so much harder to do then I thought it would be without an entire neighborhood. Since it was just us now, we had to carry twice as many boxes and furniture into the house as before, not to mention it was kind of chilly outside.

I thought that living in a neighborhood where you're literally connected with your other neighbors houses would mean that some people would come out and help us, but I guess no one was feeling generous that day because we spent one painful hour caring in things.

We piled all the furniture into the garage and took all of our belongings to our respected rooms. My room is now filled to the brim with unopened boxes that I have to unpack. I swear the only space left in my room that's left untouched is the balcony, which is where I'm writing this entry from.

I've only opened one, which is the one that contained all my glow and the dark stars, and some of my drawing and posters. I hung them up and now the room looks somewhat like old bedroom now. It doesn't make me feel so out of place anymore. I placed the woff picture frame on the desk with the photo of Ashly and Nina.

What's Ashly doing with my gift? Maybe she's wearing it or throwing it away, but until she calls me, I won't know.

Anyway, besides all that, there wasn't much else interesting today. I really wanted this entry to be filled with interesting stuff I saw around the city, but guess who couldn't go outside and explore Trolberg on their own because we moved and that apparently means we have to be stuck in the house all day long? That's right… me!

My mother said, in quote with her own words, "I just don't think it's a good idea for you and Ethan to be exploring when we have so much work to do."

It's whatever now, but I'm still kind of angry about it. I mean, I know we've been to Trolberg before, but maybe today I could've gotten… like… the layout or something, met someone in this city I guess.

Me and my brother checked the house out again but found nothing interesting. We couldn't get into the attic, and when my brother tried to make a makeshift staircase using the boxes from the moving truck to try and reach the hatch, our father came up stairs and ended that idea real quick.

"I was robbed," Ethan said, which actually made me laugh harder then I care to admit.

I wonder what's up in the attic. You'd think the old owner would clean up his mess for the next family to move in and use it, but I guess he just left all his trash there, which I seriously NEED to check out soon.

Other news today about school, there is none. Mom and dad didn't talk about me going to school yet, which means I don't have to worry about being a social outcast until a few days where I have to meet the principal and a random student and be shown around. I'm kind of dreading that.

Dad went out to talk to his boss at his new job. I still don't know what he applied for that got him to move us all the way out here to Trolberg, but it better be something good because oh my goodness I can't stop thinking about Newport and my friends.

Didn't get much of a chance to call Nina and Ashly yet, but Ethan called his friends like he promised them he would. I should really get on that soon, I've seen so many dramatic high school movies where kids who move away never call their friends again and it grows a huge rift between them forever.

I'm going downstairs after I'm done writing this to see if I can at least call them and recount the stressful day I had. Maybe we can get a quick laugh about it to, that is if they even pick up the phone at least.

 _Your Very Tired Worker_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

 **Lilith's (First) POV**

" _I'm sorry, the number you are trying to reach at this time is unavailable. Please leave a message or call back at the appreciate time-"_

Before the recorded message can finish, my fingers instinctively press the hang up button to stop the call. The phone makes a loud beep, indicating that the call has been disconnected successfully, and I could now put it back onto the receiver without worry.

My hands gripping the phone stop shaking, and somehow my breathing slows. There is no more sweat coming down my face in anticipation. All the anxiety inside my body begins to pour out, and disappointment takes its place.

I'm guessing that happens to people who try to call someone for ten times with no answer back.

I look at the clock on the wall and see that it's only three. Ashly must be up at this time, she never sleeps in. Maybe I'll try one more time.

My body doesn't move an inch as my fingers begin whirling around, dialing Ashly's number again. I'm not confident enough to call Nina yet, I have a sinking feeling that she doesn't want to talk to me anyway.

I wouldn't blame her.

It's easy to dial Ash's number, I remember the number so clearly I practically don't need to glance at the notepad on our desk with all of our friends and families phone numbers on them. Once my finger presses the last number, seven, the ringing begins again and I press my ear against the vibrating phone.

It rings once, then twice. I start to twirl my finger around the phone cord. It keeps ringing, waiting to get a connection. My eyes stare at the notepad to count the phone numbers. The ringing goes on, and on. The soreness from my fingers is enough to make me stop twirling them around the cord now. I wait a little bit more.

The phone stops at the fourteenth ring.

" _I'm sorry, the number you are-"_

I hang up instantly to spare myself.

Ashly has to be at home, I know she is. She never goes out on Fridays unless it for an important occasion, or Nina and I want to hang out with her. Ashly told me herself she didn't have much planned this week, and I'm sadly sure that Nina probably doesn't want to hang out with anyone else right now.

What if… they don't like me anymore after what I did?

The phone starts to shake, which is when I realize my hands are shaking violently. A part of me feels like I'm being dramatic, but I have an aching feeling that Ashly might be ignoring my calls. I'm still unsure, and I could just be acting selfish like I always do, again…

A frustrated sigh escapes my mouth, and I put the phone down back on its receiver. It satisfyingly clicks into place and makes a beeping noise in response.

 _Maybe I should just draw in my journal some more_ , I think to myself, _at least to pass time here._

With nothing else to do, I guess it was a good plan as any. My journal was perched on the drawer that held the phone, so I just snatched it up and headed upstairs. It's easy to race up and down the steps, but it sort of gets tiring after a while.

On the second floor, no one's around. The living room is grey and empty, and the kitchen looks lonely and gloomy. Even with the bright orange walls around, it still feels gloomy.

Mom must be upstairs unpacking because I hear the slight rustling of boxes being moved around. Ethan's probably playing in his room doing something because his murmuring voice penetrates the floor. Even with all these slight noises to inform me where everyone is, it still feels empty, and quiet.

It never felt like this back home. Even if all of our rooms were separated, it always felt like someone was there. Now, I would be lucky to even hear the footsteps in Ethan's room. What's the point in living here when it feels like you're the only person around?

 _DING DONG!_

My right foot had reached the last step of the staircase when I heard the cheery sound of the doorbell ring. The entire house goes quiet after the bell rings, and I stay frozen at the top of the staircase, silently standing at the edge of the living room.

"Lilith!" mom calls, "Lilith are you down there?"

Mom's voice causes me to snap out of my trance. I almost stumble back into the staircase before realizing where I am. My attention quickly turns to my mother instead of the door, which is now silent.

"Y-yes?!" I call back.

"Can you please open the door, I thought I heard someone-"

 _DING DONG!_

The bell is rung again and makes my heart skip a beat because of how loud it is down on the first floor.

"Lilith, can you go get that? I think it's that man that want's to get in contact with your father,"

Who was she talking about? Maybe it was the people at dad's new job, I know he talks to them over the phone downstairs when he thinks everyone's asleep. They probably call each other to flesh out job details.

"Lilith?" mom calls again.

"Yea?" I say.

"I'm kind of busy up here, can you please open the door?"

My eyes quickly train to the front door down near the staircase. I force myself to calm down, which is when my heart starts to beat normally again. The quick ragged breath I make lowers, and I start descending downstairs. It was sunny outside, and it did look like a quiet peaceful neighborhood, I'm sure whoever it was wasn't a threat, I was just overreacting.

Like I always do.

The front door was a burgundy color, with a simple silver knob and some stylish decoration throne on for good show. There was a little glass window at the top of the door, but unless you were really tall, you couldn't see through it. There was a tall glass window right beside the door however, which was very blurry, making me think it was made out of some kind of glass that I didn't know about.

Ashly at her old home had a door like this, except it was bigger, made out of some special wood, a bit fancier in every way. Nina always complained about it, but I though Ashly's door looked nice and always wanted to have one myself. Now that I do, I guess I'm happy.

As I approached the door, my eyes could detect movement outside. In the mushy whiteness of the side window, I could vaguely see a figure, almost two of them. One of the silhouettes were very tall and seems to have a masculine appearance. The other figure was smaller, almost my size, and seemed to their hair done in a bun. The tall figure was holding something, and I could hear… voices. They were talking…

" _I'm just asking…"_

" _Let's show a little…"_

" _And absolutely no bringing up that…"_

Whatever they were talking about, they made sure to do it in hushed voices because I couldn't hear anything more they were trying to say. Even though they were probably normal people, I was still weary of answering the door for them.

With very hesitant movement, I grabbed the doorknob, clutching my journal very tightly against my chest, and opened the door.

It was at that point I stopped thinking about the phone conversation I had earlier, or about Nina and Ashly, or anything about Newport. All my old memories whisked away in an instant because in front of me stood a family…

And with the family was a girl, about my age…

* * *

My first attempt at a first person POV. I hope it was semi okay since I've never really wrote in that type of style before, and my friend tried to help me in every way she could. This chapter was supposed to be a short tit bit of Lilith just handling being at her house, but I couldn't resist adding more. I hope you liked this chapter, and speculate away about who the family may be, although it might be very obvious.


	8. November 16th, Friday (Open Boxes)

_Dear Journal_

Today we met the neighbors.

Weird way to start a journal entry right? Well, it's true because today a family actually came to our house to welcome us to the neighborhood. It was still only one family who came but at least we now know there are actual people around here now.

The whole family consisted of a mother, father, and a girl about my age. The girl was rather skinny and wore a striped turtleneck shirt, and long black dress pants. The mother and father were also dressed very formally.

I was the one who opened the door for them, and they were officially the first people I talked to in Trolberg beside my family.

There's quite a lot to unpack, so let me get started with how the day went with them so far.

* * *

 **Lilith's POV**

There are fourteen unopened boxes in the living room.

That's all I can keep thinking about, like it somehow has some importance. I keep counting them over and over again, trying to find a different meaning behind the numbers. There are fourteen boxes, and only two of the boxes are filled with clothes, four of them stuffed with papers and journals, and the rest are overflowing with decorations from our old home.

A long time ago, when I was maybe nine, my mother told me that people sometimes count things to calm themselves down in a stressful situation. When everything seems to go wrong, a person might just count their fingers or random objects to soothe themselves and their mind.

It's not working for me though, no matter how many times I count, recount, subtract, multiply, and divide the boxes in front of me, I still can't help but glance at the family sitting at our dining room table.

There are three people in total, two parents, and one girl about my age. They all look so fancy and elegant in their style choices, so much so that they stand out way too much to our definitely messy house.

One quick look at them, and it's clear that the parents of the family aren't quite used to the way our house looks. They don't straight out say how ugly everything is, but everything about their body language suggests this to me. The way they sit in our wooden chairs, constantly shifting and moving around while looking at each other with worried eyes.

I don't know how that makes me feel, considering that we just moved here and I don't really know what I should be feeling. Maybe I should be a little annoyed at their reactions to our house, but right now it's all I can do to keep my eyes off the boxes just to glance at them, so I shouldn't be so quick to judge them.

Then there's the girl, who sits in the chair right next to me. She doesn't seem like her parents, as she doesn't really move around in the wooden chair as much or divert her eyes in worry. I don't quite know what to think about her yet. She doesn't seem like the type of person I would hang out with, as she definitely looks like one of those really snobby smart girls that I used to see at my old school.

Hopefully, she doesn't turn out like that though once I work up the nerve to talk to her.

Besides me and the other family, mom sits on the other side of the table, quietly attempting small talk with the other parents. She seems quite nervous like me, but it doesn't appear to show as they talk about the weather and such. I wish I had her type of confidence to talk to people without showing any fear, but that's kind of hard for me to do after being moved a thousand miles away from my old town.

Ethan hasn't made an appearance at all, probably chilling in his own little room upstairs playing games on his portable device or what not. I wish he was down here to lighten the mood since he's so much younger than everyone at this table and is much more outgoing than me, but I guess I understand why he wants to be upstairs by himself rather than talk to a bunch of girls.

Minus the father of course.

As I sit there, silently listening to the conversation, I can't help but wonder what Nina and Ashly would do in this situation. Ashly would probably make small talk with the girl beside me, talk about the city and how everything works. Nina would just make an amazing joke, or do something funny to make the girl laugh.

What would I do though? What am I supposed to say to this girl? I've never really been the one to introduce myself out there since I mostly just sit in the back and do my own thing. I only ever felt confident or brave at my old town with my friends, and those are thousands of miles away now. I don't think I can do anything without looking like an idiot.

So me and the girl just sit there quietly, watching the adults talk about things we don't care about. At some point, she glances at me, but I pretend not to notice her. Maybe I should talk to her, but I don't feel like it's the right moment yet.

"Would any of you like some beverages?" mom says suddenly, "I'd be happy to make them."

"No thank you," the mother replies, "although I appreciate the offer."

"None for me as well," the father says, "what about you Frida?"

The girl, whose name is apparently Frida I guess, ponders a bit before answering.

"I'll just have some water please," Frida answers.

It's the first time I've ever heard this girl speak, and somehow in some way, it makes me a little bit calmer hearing her oddly soothing voice.

"Coming right up," mom says with a smile, quickly going to the kitchen to prepare a single glass of water.

No one says anything as mom prepares the quick beverage for Frida. It's so quiet that I can clearly hear her in the kitchen silently pouring in the drink. The adults start chatting with each other, and Frida resorts to check out our pictures on the wall. Maybe this would be a good time to talk to them, but my lips stay glued shut.

After like thirty seconds of silence, Mom comes back to the table with a small clear glass of water for Frida, and surprisingly a second cup filled with sparkling fizzy Pepsi which I guess is for me.

"Here you are," mom says happily, giving the water to Frida.

"Thank you, Ms. Parker," Frida says, quickly taking the glass.

"And here you go to Lilith," mom says, handing me the soda, "I figured with your mouth dry and all you would like a refreshment as well."

"Thanks, mom," I say silently, grabbing the cup.

My hands grip around the ice-cold glass as mom returns to her seat and chats with the adults again. I can't help but stare into the bubbly black void of my drink as I begin to contemplate whether or not if I should talk to these people. It should be so easy to say something, but I can't even say a simple "hello" or anything.

It's very vague in my mind, but before I met Nina, I remember being a really shy kid. Like, super extra levels type of shy. I don't think I talked to anyone much except my parents and the dolls I used to play with back then. Whenever someone did talk to me, I either nodded, shook my head, or just hid behind one of my parents as they took over.

Nina was the one who broke me out of my timid shell in kindergarten. She was so loud and social, that I was surprised she even came up to me. It took like two years, but eventually, Nina was able to get me to speak out more The first time I ever talked to someone other than the teacher or my parents, was this other kid in class. This turned out to be a really funny event, because when Nina saw me talking to him she shouted, "SHE SPEAKS AT LAST!"

Those were the good old days.

Now that I moved, I don't think I've been able to say one sentence since I got here. If I don't start talking more soon, it's going to hell trying to get through the first day of school.

Maybe I should start paying attention to what other people say, then I can take mental notes on how to talk to others since they do it so well. It would be better to pay attention than just tune out what everyone's saying, people would consider that rude, and I don't want to be considered rude at all.

 _Maybe instead of looking around and counting boxes like a dork,_ I think to myself quietly, _I should start paying more attention to what mom and the adults are saying._

I nod in agreement with myself and start quickly listening in on my mom and the other parent's conversation.

"It's so nice to for you to come and visit us," mom says, "we haven't gotten many visitors in the past few days."

Is she serious? I almost start laughing out loud in front of everyone before wisely shutting myself up. It's hard to not smile a little bit though, knowing that what my mom really means by that comment is that we haven't had _any_ "visitors" come to visit us in the last few days.

"Oh it's no problem at all," the other mother says not noticing me, "we got informed of the move by the previous owner two weeks ago and we just wanted to introduce ourselves."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you all," mom says smiling.

At this point, the dining room falls silent again as the small conversation quickly ends. A part of me wants to say something to break the ice that has now been solidly formed, but no words can come out of my mouth. It's so hard to talk without worrying constantly if I might say something wrong.

 _I wish I wasn't so introverted,_ I think to myself.

Mom doesn't look so calm either about the situation either, she's constantly twirling her bracelet and pursing her lips as the silence lingers on. It hurts me mentally to watch mom right now, she seems so nervous about how things are going with the family.

While usually, I like things being silent, this was too much. If Nina or Ashly were here right now, they would never have let this kind of awkwardness go on any further. I have to speak up, I have to "go for it" as Nina would usually tell me whenever we were in a tight spot.

So I do.

"Excuse me?" I say out loud, directing my attention to the parents.

Everyone instantly looks over at me, curious about what I have to say. I almost choke up when I see everyone eyes staring at me. Even though this is such a bad idea, I push through in determination without trying to question myself.

"Do you mind if I show Frida around the house?" I ask, "just to show her… the layout… of everything?"

There's a silent part of me that cringes after saying what I said, but I force myself to stop questioning myself and just try to stay calm in front of everyone.

The parents seem to not register my question at first, but after a few seconds, worry appears cleanly on their faces as they stare at each other. They say no words, but I can tell that they have a full-on conversation with just there eyes as they glance to each other and to Frida. I don't dare look at Frida to see her reaction to what I said, I'm way too worried about her parents right now to really care how she feels.

It stays silent a little bit longer, each passing second making me feel as if an anvil is in my chest. This awkward scenario, funnily enough, reminds me of another moment of my life when me and Nina met Ashly's parents. We were over at her house, silently introducing ourselves to her overly formal mother and father at the time. Ashly told us beforehand how uptight her parents were and didn't want us to say or do anything we would usually do outside when no one saw us.

We were pretty good shutting ourselves up anyway, so it wasn't any problem, and Ashly carried most of the conversation on her shoulders which allowed me to stay completely mute during the whole exchange with her family.

This time, however, I don't have any Ashly to rely on, just myself, and hopefully the approval of these two parents to hang out with Frida. Again, she doesn't seem like my type, but hopefully when we're both alone and allowed to fully express ourselves, maybe I will start to enjoy her company more.

The parents are silent for a moment, not sure really how to respond. It's so agonizing to wait, I just feel like shouting at them.

"That sounds like a great idea," mom says out of the blue, "Lilith, why don't you show Frida around you're room? I know you're dying to show someone you're room ever since you got here."

Everyone turns toward her in confusion, but she doesn't pay attention to anyone else but me, her eyes locked onto mine with a reassuring squint. The parents once again, say nothing for a bit when my mom makes a comment, but I can tell they're looking at Frida to wage her opinion. I don't look at her myself, but I'm guessing her eyes did all the talking because eventually the mother nods and smiles.

"Yes, why don't you follow Lilith sweetie," the mom says, "I'm sure she has many interesting things to show you."

What feels like a giant crushing mountain quickly washes over me and brings me nothing but relief and warmth. It took them long enough to agree, even if some of their hesitates was partially my fault. It feels so good to actually speak and cause something to happen for a change.

After silently celebrating a little bit in my head, I turn toward Frida, who I quickly notice is smiling at me.

I shyly smile back at her.

"Come on," I say cheerily, "I'll show you around."

Frida doesn't hesitate to follow me, and we both quickly race away from the table and hop the steps up to the third floor, leaving behind the silent dining room and fourteen unopened boxes in our wake.

* * *

Short chapter, with a fairly short conclusion.

Frida and her family weren't brought up much in this chapter, as I mostly focused on Lilith's insecurities without her friends and her ability to speak up until the very end. It might be a little repetitive about how much Lilith silently curses herself for being awkward, and I'm sorry about that. Again, first time writing in a long time, but I still hope you guys enjoy it. 😊

I hope none of you are too upset I didn't focus on Frida. Don't worry though, she'll be brought up a lot in the next chapter, and I promise soon Lilith and Hilda will meet and they'll go on such cool adventures together!


	9. November 16th, Friday (A Book and Frida)

_Dear Journal_

I always loved bedrooms, so much so that I kind of obsess about them from time to time. I don't really know why exactly, but I always liked the idea of them. It's just, there are so many things to like about having a bedroom, like the fact that it's a little space, and it's _yours_ and… it's just for you. It's a place for you to escape and hide from the world, to express who you really are.

A bedroom is like a guardian almost, to shield and protect you from the unfairness of the outside world, never judging you like real people.

"So why are you writing this down?" you may be asking my dear journal, "how is this somehow important?"

Well, here's an example. Take a journal or diary for instance like yourself, since it's a good comparison. Now, you know how a diary is supposed to be super-secret and no one is allowed to read it? (ETHAN I'M LOOKING AT YOU). That's kind of how I view my bedroom. A place just for me to do what I want. It's mine, and it's a place for my eyes only.

So when you invite a stranger to come into your room, it's kind of like someone peeking into you FORBIDDEN diary. You get nervous and worried, constantly wondering what they saw and what they think of what they saw. There are so many people out in the world, all with different personalities and certain likes and dislikes. And since your room is like, YOUR room, there's going to be at least one thing someone dislikes about it.

And I am a perfect example of someone who freaks out over people who dislike my things.

Even when I was hanging out with Nina and Ashly, I was always worried about what they thought of my room. They never made fun of it or anything, but I was always still worried about it. So if a person like me is worried about what my friends think about my bedroom, then it's a whole different ball game when it comes to strangers.

Especially when it comes to a stranger like Frida.

* * *

 **Lilith's POV**

My strategy now is to never stop talking.

I don't know why I came up with it exactly, but it somehow is comforting to keep talking about things that Frida doesn't really have time to comment on when showing her around the house. That might make me a jerk technically, but she doesn't seem to mind my rambling as I go on and on about the layout of my house.

"That's the closet where we keep some of our junk," I say, "and that door leads to my parent's room which we're allowed to explore. Over there is our laundry room."

My mouth continues to open and clothes, explaining things that I probably shouldn't be showing to Frida since they might be considered bland. Like, maybe I shouldn't have talked about how unique our laundry room was for two minutes, but again, I decide to keep to my strategy to never stop talking.

It reminds me of Cora Velvet's character from "Translucent" written by Harper. Cora constantly talks and talks about unrelated things just like me, except since Harper wrote that book, they made Cora's constant rambling work as an insecure way of trying to get around things. Like me, except done way better.

Meanwhile, I continue to explain to Frida about how interesting the townhouse we live in is while she nods and looks around at all the photos that dot the walls. I wonder what she might be thinking when she sees the photos.

We quickly walk down the hall on the third floor, and that's when she spots the attic.

The attic is hard to miss since the cord is pretty long and you can clearly see the panel that leads to the attic itself, despite the previous owner trying to paint over it. The cord that pulls down the latch doesn't have a wooden ball attached to it as normal attics do, but rather and shiny star that has succumbed to dust. Me and Ethan have had both of our eyes fixated on that cord and the attic the moment we set our feet here, and it seems like Frida enters the same trance as us the moment she sees the star.

"Is that the attic?" she asks, pointing to the lonely star.

"Yea, but we're not allowed to go up there," I reply, "my dad forbids it."

Frida looks at me questioningly before looking back at the star.

"Why is that?" she asks.

I shrug in response, still staring at the light blue star coated in ugly brown particles.

"I don't really know," I say, "apparently the other person who was here left some of their stuff behind. So I guess my parents don't want me to snoop around in the other guy's things."

Silence for a bit as we stare at the door with wonder.

"And the door is locked tight somehow anyway," I quickly add, "so we wouldn't be able to enter anyway."

"Oh," Frida simply says, staring curiously at the cord.

It seems as though Frida is really curious about what might be up there, and honestly, I am as well. But the last thing I want to do right now is disobey my parents when me and Ethan were all ready sulking before the move itself. And besides, with the door leading to the attic locked up tight, there's no way I could go up there anyway.

Now that I think about it, why is there even a lock leading to the attic, and why did this guy sell his house? Didn't Frida's parents know him or something? Maybe I could ask her…

"Do you know who lived here before?" I ask Frida.

She simply shrugs in response while staring at the panel.

"His name was Oliver, but I didn't really see him often," she starts, "I know he was fairly old and didn't go out much, so my mom visited him a lot before he left. He had a lot of money to pay for this place, but I guess he didn't want to stay here…"

"Oh," is all I say back, staring at the cord that leads to the fourth and final floor.

What mystery's lie up there I wonder? Whatever it is, I'm definitely not going to find out soon with that lock, or my parent's watchful eyes. If I was more like Ethan, I would try and climb to the roof where the attic window is. Thankfully though, I'm not stupid like he is.

Me and Frida stare at the attic cord for a bit until I decide to walk ahead to the end of the hall. At the end of it lies the door to my bedroom and the door to my bathroom.

Frida is much more interested in seeing my room instead of checking out the bathroom, which is understandable.

I open the door to my little space, effectively killing off all privacy I had by inviting Frida inside.

"Welcome to my bedroom," I say, quietly observing Frida "it's not much really, but I hope to put it together soon."

The moment I opened the door, I expected Frida to instantly react surprised or disgusted at the state of my unfinished room, but she actually doesn't say anything at all when she sees the scattered boxes and crumpled cardboard. I don't know if she's just keeping her thoughts reserved or she generally has nothing to say about my bedroom.

I don't really know how to think about that if that's the case…

Anyway, Frida hesitantly walks in as I close the door behind us, effectively sealing ourselves away from the outside world. She takes a quick look around the room with silent steps while I stand near the door watching her, trying to gauge any sort of reaction I can.

"It's nice," Frida says, "I like that you have a little terrace."

At first, I don't know what she means until I see her looking over to my balcony stationed outside. I guess that's what she's referring to when she says "terrace". It's a strange word, "terrace" like it doesn't make quite much sense to me yet. Do people really call balconies "Terraces" sometimes?

I don't even know why I'm over-analyzing it so much. Once Frida leaves, I'll just search it up online anyway.

We both stand around the cramped boxed room, not saying a word to each other. It's super weird, especially when I look over and see the pictures of my friends strewn across the room with Frida standing there.

"So… what do you want to do?" I ask.

Frida looks around before she notices all the books from my tiny bookshelf.

"How about we read for a bit?" she says.

Okay, that's a weird request since we're supposed to be "hanging out" but I don't disagree with her. I'm always down to suck myself into the world of fantasy driven books again no matter what time of day it is.

"That's fine with me," I say, "what do you want to read?"

Frida ponders for a bit, scrolling through my collection of books until she shrugs.

"What do you suggest?" she asks.

This kind of takes me by surprise until I remember how she's dressed right now and remembering how her parents acted. She might've wanted to read, but it seems by her appearance that she's the type of person to really curl up with a biology science book instead of a fantasy adventure novel. That might be a problem if that's true since my book collection really only consist of fantasy books.

So judging by her appearance to be really fancy, but also kind of laid back, I pull out the "The Waving River" made by Harper Peterson. The cover is still bright blue and just as clean as the day I bought it from the store. It has some elements of logic and learning, but it also has an awesome character and plot. Not to mention it's written by Harper Peterson so that's a major plus as well.

"The Waving River is a pretty good book," I say, "it's written by Harper Peterson so you'll probably enjoy it."

Frida takes the book and starts reading the blurb on the back detailing the story and world of "Waving River'.

"I don't know who the author is," she says, "but it does sound like an interesting read."

My jaw almost drops to the floor when my ears hear that, and it's super hard to keep my disbelief off my face in real life no matter how hard I try and hide it.

The worst part about my reaction is that Frida seems to notice my utter disbelief toward her, which is why her smile quickly drops and she looks away.

"I mean, I don't know the author very well _yet_ ," she says again, "but I'm sure to look her up when I get home…"

Wait, did I just accidentally make her uncomfortable? I don't want her to feel that way at all. I was just showing how confused I was that she hadn't heard of the most perfect and best author ever. Harper is really well known around Newport, and all over the world. Again, she made the "Enchanting Light" books, "The Line Through Time" story. She also made "The Waving River" which is seen as a masterpiece by everyone.

I was just surprised that she hadn't heard of her before, who hasn't heard of Harper Peterson before?

Before I can apologize and tell her she doesn't have to search up anything about Harper, Frida quickly sits down at my desk and starts reading the book I gave her. The moment her eyes focus on the words and her grip tightens on the edges of the pages is when I know she's to entranced with the story for me to get anywhere near her without disturbing her concentration. That's just how Harper's books work, they instantly entrap you into the story.

It's easy to tell (as a fellow reader myself) when someone's so connected to a book that they should probably be left alone for the time.

I decide to leave her alone and sit on my bed to read as well. I decide to choose "Red Sky" (Another book made by Harper) and soon I'm sucked into the world of Altera. I instantly pick up right where I left off two weeks ago. When Morro, the main character, has just entered the market place in his dirty robes to hide his identity from everyone else while trying to find Lynn, his apparent traveling companion that he's seen in his unexplainable visions he keeps having.

For the next few pages, I'm gripped as Morro finds his way into an abandoned farmhouse where Lynn apparently resides in. The moment he steps inside, he's rushed onto the ground and a sharp rusty spear edges near his chest. I can practically feel the panic Morro is going through until he realizes that his attacker is the very same person he's been looking for.

I look over occasionally at Frida as I continue with my story, who seems deeply invested in "The Waving River" already just by reading the first few lines. I've read hundreds of times and know every word by heart, but it seems like Frida is more invested into the book than I ever was, gasping silently at points, and whispering warnings to Sophie (the main character) even though she can't hear her and doesn't exist

Even if she didn't know who Harper was before, at least I got her invested into her stories now.

It's a long time until me and Frida put our books down since we're so engaged with what's happening in them. After a while though, me and Frida decide we should actually start talking to each other than just trying to read. It's painful to put away "Red Sky" after landing on the part where Morro and Lynn finally start becoming friends, but eventually I put it near my bed to read later.

Since there's no-where to really walk around in my room with all the boxes I've kept lying around, we just decide to sit on my oversized bed that sits right next to the wall where all my pictures are taped up.

It's so weird to sit there on my bed with Frida while all my pictures of me and my old friends are taped up right next to us. I mean, it almost feels like a smack to the face to see how weirdly my life has changed.

I don't know Frida very well yet, and I doubt she would even want to become friends with a nerd like me, but I know that if she ever did become friends with me, there would be no way she could ever compare to my best friends back home.

 _She doesn't have to be like them though,_ I try to say to myself, but it's hard to really cope with it.

Frida doesn't really say much to me, instead deciding to look around my room to find anything interesting to look at. I wouldn't really blame her considering my room looks like a train wreck now. If anything, she's probably looking for an exit out of here right now.

 _Maybe I should ask her about the Waving River and her thoughts on it._

"So…" I start, "what did you think about the Waving River?"

"It's an awesome book so far," she says, "I love Sophie as a character, and the theme's they set up about changing how people perceive you is really interesting."

Frida takes a moment before shrugging quickly.

"Although, I will admit that the whole missing memory thing is a bit overdone in the book in my opinion."

I nod slowly in agreement with her, even if I don't actually agree with her since I personally think Harper handles the memory loss aspect well.

"How was your book?" she asks.

I don't even hesitate to answer her.

"It's amazing so far! Everything that Lynn and Morro do is just so cute and perfect, and not to mention the mystery of the visions, and the whole world suddenly changing into a-"

My breath runs out before I can finish, which is slightly annoying since I just want to spill everything to Frida about the story without having to stop. That's what I plan to do anyway until I see her face. Before I can even continue on my rambling about the book, I notice that she looks a bit overwhelmed with everything I just told her.

"Oh wait, did I just go on and ramble again?" I ask.

Frida nods, smiling like she's almost amused somehow.

"It's okay if you do, " Frida reassures me, "I can tell you were really excited to tell me about it."

I sigh out in relief for a bit knowing I didn't somehow accidentally upset Frida by my long drawn out conversations.

"Well, it was a really great book," I reply.

"Is that so?" Frida says, "I might have to check it out then, along with Waving River as well to read it at home. What was your book called again?"

I'm almost ecstatic to answer her.

"It's called Red Sky," I say, "Oh! And you should check out Enchanting Light as well. It's pretty good as well."

Frida smiles and uses her hand to make a pretend check mark in the air.

"I'll add it to the list," she says.

We both chuckle for a bit at Frida's attempt to lighten the tension for a bit during this quiet afternoon.

Okay, so that conversation went well. Maybe I should just talk about books all day and will get along-

"Is that your old house?" Frida says suddenly.

My eyes dart over to where she points, and find her looking at one of the photos. The photo showing my entire family standing in the yard of our quiet little house.

"Uh… yeah," I said, "it was…"

Frida takes one look at me, and then back at the photo.

"That house has a Newport type design," she says, "you used to live there, am I right?"

The shock on my face is clear when she says that.

"How could you tell I was from Newport?"

"Well," Frida begins, "from what I can get in the picture, your house is quite small and painted light blue. Not to mention that all the frames of the house are painted white, like some beach houses are almost. Newport is the only city close to Trolberg that's considered a beach town, so that's where you're from."

My eyes blink for a moment in amazement as Frida smiles at the picture.

"You could tell all that from a picture?" I say.

"It's not very hard," she replies, "as long as your observant, you can see things and make connections no one else can make."

Wow, that's very clever. I think Ashly did something like that once, only it was from a baby picture of Nina and Ashly tried to guess how many teeth she lost over the years. Frida was able to guess what town I was in entirely just by the design of my old house.

"You're pretty smart you know,' I say.

"I try to be at least," she replies, "I'm not like, the _smartest_ kid in school, but I'd like to think I'm at least up on the charts."

On the charts? She must be insanely smart then because even Rachel Patter at my old school didn't get on the charts, and she scored A's all year. Ashly, of course, was on the charts, which now makes me wonder if Frida and Ashly have the same intelligence level. It would be awesome to find out if that was the case.

Now feeling a bit more confident, I decided to start the next conversation.

"Um…" I start to say, "do you like to write?"

A pretty generic question, but Frida's eyes light up like Christmas trees when I ask that.

"Like to write?" Frida says, "I _love_ to write more like it."

This actually surprises me, which seems strange since her appearance and attitude seems like the kind of person who would write all the time. Still, it's amazing to know there's someone else out there who likes to write just like me.

"I barely remember a time I found myself without a pen or pencil to write down a list," Frida continues.

Wait. A list? Who likes to write down list anymore? I mean Ashly kind of does, but she also likes to actually write stories and stuff.

"Wait…" I say, "I meant do you like to write down stories and poems… that kind of stuff."

Frida blinks for a moment before her cheeks turn red.

"Oh, that kind of writing," Frida says, "I kind of like to do it, but I'm more of a… objective and chart maker type of writer, you know?"

"I do now…" I say and quickly avert my gaze again.

Okay, so I messed up on that conversation, what else can I do? Maybe I can ask about what school is like here, I'm positive she might go to the same school I might go to. But what if she hates school? Well, the way she's dressed indicates the opposite, but maybe she-

"Are those your friends?" Frida asks suddenly.

Her finger points to the pictures on the wall, each one showing me, Nina, and Ashly all together.

It suddenly feels like a lump appears in my throat because I'm almost speechless on what to say to her.

Frida quickly sees my reaction and almost immediately backs down.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Frida says, "if it's a touchy subject, then we don't have to talk about it. I just thought that…"

"No," I say, "it's okay. I just am having a tough time with them right now."

I have no idea why I even decided to say that. I didn't have any intention of telling strangers about my problems, and yet it felt like the words just came exploding out of my mouth. Once it starts though, there's no way to get me to stop talking.

"The one with the big blonde hair is Ashly," I start, "she's really pretty and smart. I think she was like, the smartest person at my old school."

"She certainly seems like that type of person," Frida says, looking at the photos, "what was she like?"

"Oh," I begin, "well, she was really kind and sweet to everyone. There was never a day where she forgot to chat with at least one person, even if she didn't know them. She was a really good person, a friend to everyone…"

The word _"Friend"_ lingers in my mind as I stare at the picture with Ashly and me. Ashly's smile is so bright and happy, it almost seems like she could be living on the sun.

"She looks really pretty," Frida says.

"Yeah," I reply, "she always tried to look her best."

Frida continued to scan the photos until she pointed at another one.

At Nina…

"And who's that?" Frida ask.

My heart starts to pump loudly when Frida asks that question. Simply looking at Nina, even in a photo fills me with dread and guilt. It's so hard to even think about her at the moment whenever my mind flashes to the boat parade.

But Frida did ask a question, and I guess I'm inclined to answer.

"That was… Nina," I say, "she… was my best friend…"

"Oh…" Frida says, looking at the photo, "I guess… she didn't take the move too well?"

"Yeah…" I say, "she didn't."

It grows quiet for a bit as warm feeling from the conversation dwindles into nothing. My head feels weak, and my eyes water. The memories of the boat parade come flooding back, and it's all I can literally do to keep my calm.

Frida observes me quietly, but I pretend not to notice and try my best to calm down. There's no way I can cry in front of her right now. What would she think then?

"I'm really sorry about whatever happened with your friends before you moved…" Frida says quietly, "sometimes it's really hard for people to accept change so easily."

Her sentence catches me off guard, but somehow feels comforting in a way.

"But even if things with your friends might be different, I know you'll like it here in Trolberg," Frida chirps, "it's a pretty nice place to live in once you meet the right people."

When I look over at Frida, I find that she's smiling toward me. Her smile looks genuine and sincere, like a kind gesture of compassion from a friend telling you not to worry. It almost reminds me of the smiles that Nina used to give before I moved away.

Somehow though, Frida's smile is more warming and comforting to me, and it actually makes me smile back at her for the first time since I got to this city.

"Thanks, Frida," I said, "for telling me that."

"It's no problem really," she said, "I just think you need some time to adjust and get used to things here. It's the same with every new kid."

"Adjusts and get used to things," I think I can do that. I just have to take it one step at a time, and once I do that, maybe things will be just as normal here as they were back in Newport.

That's all I have to do…

* * *

So... been a while huh?

I'm not really going to go into happened between the break that made me stop writing for a while, but right now i'm back and fully motivated to continue with my stories.

My first real time trying to write a character that isn't mine, A.K.A Frida. I am really sorry if I didn't quite write her as well as I could, but I hope you still enjoyed her and Lilith's interactions together, even if they were fairly short.

A couple of other things were brought into this chapter. I won't say what they were because I believe in "show don't tell", but they're pretty easy to spot so I wouldn't be surprised if you guys see what i'm talking about instantly.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and see you guys next time. :)


	10. November 16th, Friday (We're Better Now)

_Dear Journal_

 _(WARNING: This entry is going to have a lot of fangirl talk and doesn't sound anything like me, so please, if you don't want to hear me gush about the best author of all time, please turn to the next page. Thank you.)_

I don't think I've ever talked about Harper Peterson before with you, have I journal? Well, I guess now's the time to really gush about how amazing she is and how great all her books are.

So I discovered Harper Peterson when I was young. I was in the local library, going through my normal routine of saying hello to the librarians and browsing through all the books when a glimmer of red caught my eye in the "Featured" section. I usually never check out books in the featured section before since I liked to read more hidden books that not a lot of people have read before, but this one book, in particular, caught my attention.

It was called "Enchanted Light", which my dear journal is my favorite book series of all time. The cover was a simple red, with a silhouetted gold ring in the middle that made it stand out above all the featured books. I decided to check it out and read a bit while I made my way back home.

Oh was I in for a ride.

I grew obsessed with the first book after a couple of chapters, and by the time I got to the end, I knew I needed more. I begged my mom for my birthday to try and buy me as many Harper Peterson books she could find, and before I knew it for my seventh birthday, I was reading a mountain of her books.

Of course, I grew obsessed with other authors during my book reading career. I mean I own half of Jonathan Mackinlay books, and I'll get anything written by Liana Thiel. But Harper, was like… my idol.

It's really hard for fans like me to explain what makes her books so great to people who've never heard of Harper Peterson before. But I'll try my best to anyone out there who is listening.

Okay, so there's just something about Harper Peterson's books that are all just so amazing. The tone and descriptions she puts in her books are so hypnotizing and clever, and she mixes it in so well with light-hearted plots and lovable characters. The descriptions for her writing are just amazing, and she also made one of my favorite book series of all time (*COUGH* Enchanting Light *COUGH*).

Harper Peterson is so amazing that every time she goes to a city or a place for a book signing or interview, millions of people are there to see her and want to meet her. I've never met her in person, but I've seen hundreds of videos of her so I guess that counts.

Did I mention she's really pretty? Like, supernatural level's of pretty. It's almost absurd how amazing she looks with her elegant jet-black hair and gorgeous light blue eyes…

Okay, I know it sounds like I'm fangirling way too much about Harper Peterson and not actually explaining what makes her so good, but that's just how I role whenever I think about her. Not to mention that this is my journal and I can put anything I want.

But seriously Harper is so amazing at writing and descriptive details that I can't stop thinking about it, I mean, here is one example from her book "Turbines"

" _The decrepit floorboards under the maiden screeched and groaned with every slight step she made, interrupting the girl for a few mere seconds before she dived into her work again. Her mind, still and quiet, yet calculating each approach as the time grew closer. She would need to hurry; the sounds of the sirens were getting louder. "_

" _She poured the finished meal, and with a few quick steps set the steaming bowls onto the table without question. The sirens stopped, the noise ceased, and the silence returned. The tips of her mouth turned into a shy smile as she stared off into the void, knowing her masters were staring her down, just waiting to devour the prey she had caught for them. She didn't dare say a word as she stood there, blanking off into the darkness she called home as the giant arms of the turbines swung outside, drifting her to sleep."_

It's just so amazing, right? I mean, the instant mystery, the intense focus the character goes through as she doesn't care about anything else but the meal. The questions that are raised like, what are the sirens? And what are the "masters"? And then you read the rest of the book and realize these few paragraphs alone just tells you everything about Emelia and how she's going to eventually change! It's all just so great!

I wish I could've gotten Nina and Ashly into Harper's books, but both of them were content with reading their own things. Ashly was solely focused on the "Amanda Vitol" series, and Nina didn't really see the appeal of her books, so she never tried them. They always encouraged me to continue reading Harper's books though since they saw I enjoyed her stories, so I did just that.

I hope I can be like Harper someday. There's just something in her books that inspire me so much to become a writer like her, but I know I could never compete against that. How could I when her writing is already so amazing? Believe me, I've tried before, but I always come out so… empty inside. I can never ever find the right words and it just annoys me.

Maybe one day I can be like Harper, but I dream…

I dream…

* * *

 **Lilith's POV**

My pencil lingers above the pristine white paper as I try to decide what to write down.

It's been a while since I made an actual written up plan for a story, the last one I did was probably in third grade for a scrapped short story I wanted to write. Now I see why I stopped. It's hard to write down plans for a story when you could just be writing your actual book instead. Sadly for me, planning comes first for any professional writer, and right now, I'm stumped for what to put down…

I probably shouldn't even be doing this while Frida is here, but Frida's words about "adjusting" got an idea shaped into my head that I think would make a great story. Besides, since she's occupied with reading everything made by Harper Peterson right now, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea trying to catch up on some of my own writing. I used to do it a lot back in Newport whenever I had any free time, and I haven't really gotten a chance to do write anything since I moved here.

Might as well start now I guess…

That's what I tell myself anyway before I write anyway. Right now though as I sit here, I have no clue on what to write. Millions of ideas swarm inside my head, and yet not a single one I think I can put down on the paper. I don't even know who my main character should be, and I keep thinking about all the things they'll be doing in my head.

In my head currently, the protagonist has already moved into a town, where some strange things start happening that they've never seen before. They quickly find out that all the strange stuff that's happening in town is actually a quite normal occurrence for people who live there, so they have to try and prove themselves to the community that they can somehow fit in with them. During all this, they are still wanting to live a normal life and make friends, while trying to befriend a magical beast that resides in the town.

How in the world could I balance all that and put it in a story?

Maybe, I can make it so the main character has a special item that can help them on their journey to being accepted. Or maybe I can somehow find a way to make it so he has a sibling who's also experiencing everything for the first time just like them. Should I include memory loss as Harper does for her books? That would make things easier at least-

"What are you doing there?" Frida says.

I almost jump before clutching my desk, making my sudden shock less noticeable hopefully. Frida leans over next to me staring at the empty paper and my pencil.

"Oh, well I was just trying to write down some ideas for a story in my head," I reply quickly.

Frida takes a quick glance at the paper to see my _amazing_ progress and nods.

"Having some trouble?" she asks.

I sigh in response.

"You have no idea," I say.

Frida takes a moment before quickly grabbing a chair and sitting beside me.

"Have you thought of making a plot diagram?" she asks, "having one would make planning out a story much easier if you knew what was going to happen in each part."

I look over at my clean desk and find the crumpled plot diagram I made earlier lying at the edge of it.

"I tried that," I said, "but it's still not coming together. It's like my brain can't focus or something."

"I know the feeling," Frida exclaimed, "what do you think is keeping you back?"

"Basically everything," I replied, "want me to make you a list to show you?"

"I don't really think a list detailing all your troubles is what you need right now," Frida says.

A sigh escapes my mouth and I lean back in my chair, tapping my pencil furiously at the desk. My mind's at a blank right now, and I can't really do anything but sit here and try to fill this empty void into my head.

"What's the book about?" Frida ask.

For a moment I hesitate to answer in fear of a complete rejection from Frida. But then I look at her and see her eyes curiously look at all my notes with genuine interest.

"W-well basically it's about this girl," I start, "a-and she just moved to a town where… strange things are pretty common to the townspeople. People think.. that the girl is quite weird for not accepting all the strange things that are happening, so she has to prove herself to the town and all the kids so she can live a normal life there. And while all that's happening-"

"That sounds just like your situation right now," Frida interrupts.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit taken aback by Frida's sudden comment during my explanation of the story, but then the words start to sink in deeper and I realize she's completely right. Minus the whole monster taming thing, me and the character from my book mirror the same situation right now. Both of us are new kids in a strange town that we have to somehow have to fit in to.

"I guess it kind of does," I say.

Frida's eyes light up after a brief moment, and before she even tells me I know she has an idea.

"I'm certainly no author, but I know that some writers take a lot of their inspiration from real events or things that have happened to them," Frida explains, "and your story matches up so well with your current situation, that I suggest you reflect on everything that has happened to you so you can put it into your book."

There's a slight pause before Frida speaks again.

"With a little added twist to it of course so it isn't a complete carbon copy of your life," she adds quickly.

"You really think that could work?" I ask, "there's not a lot interesting going on in my life that could translate to the main character."

"Of course there are," Frida says, "for example, you said your character was moving to a new town where things were different from her old one. Just like you coming from Newport to Trolberg. So, all you have to do is take your experiences and feelings from your own move, and then put it into the book for the character to feel as well."

"And then those feelings from my move and the character's move can grow and change over the course of the book when she lives out her life in the new town," I finish.

"Exactly," Frida says, "see you're getting it now."

She smiles at me, which makes me smile back at her.

I guess I am getting it now. All I have to do is just live out my life here and Trolberg, and take some inspiration from what happens to me and twist it in the book. All the best writers do that as well right?

"It's starting to make sense now," I say,

"I knew you would," Frida exclaimed, "and all it took was a small conversation to figure it out,"

"Yeah, I guess I overthink things a lot,"

"Not that much I think," Frida said, "you just have a very active imagination like everyone else."

Her words are simple, but yet I feel a little bit better inside when she says that.

"Thank you Frida," I say, "for helping me."

Frida's eyes widen a bit before she smiles warmly.

"Don't mention it," she says.

* * *

The words come out easier now that I found my source of inspiration.

It's actually quite easier then I thought to write down about a character moving from their home town when I've been through the same thing already. Not to mention the entire event of that move is still fresh in my mind, so my feelings easily translate onto the character who's going through the same motions.

Right now, I'm calling my main character Mary until I find a name that better reflects her personality. So far in the book, I'm writing, she's been informed about the move and is coping with it by talking to her friends about it. Instead of waiting to tell them at the last second like an idiot (A.K.A ME), she actually tells them right away about her leaving town and they aren't upset with her.

The chapter ends with them staying on good terms and wishing the best for Mary…

It's just like Frida said, I could reflect my own thoughts, feelings, and motivations through the protagonist because they're going through the same thing as me. However, I can make most of her traits positive and make her do things I was never able to do. Like, tell her friends about her moving.

I wonder how Nina and Ashly would react if I told them sooner about the move rather then later. It would really make things less tense between three of us.

Maybe then-

"Do you hear that?" Frida says.

I turn around and find Frida looking around my room curiously.

"Hear what?" I ask.

"That sound," she repeats, "it sounds like laughter."

Laughter? What in the world is she talking about? There's nothing around my room that could possibly-

" _Quick dude! Let's go!"_

Wait, that sounded like something! I spin my head toward the direction the sound came from and find the door leading to the terrace slightly open. That's how we're able to hear it. There are the many sounds of birds chirping and cars rolling down the street that invade my ears as well, but the sudden laughter coming from outside somehow consumes it all in a loud ugly chorus.

" _Did you see his face?!"_

More voices? Who is that? I instantly rise from my chair and head outside to the balcony, while Frida follows behind holding her book.

The smell of vanilla pine invades my nostrils when I take my first step on the balcony, making my nose twitch at the gentle scent. The sun is still high above the sky, lighting up the world with its bright beam. Besides the laughter, the slight rustle of the leaves next to me drowns out all the other noises.

But it's still not loud enough to hide those irritating voices.

Me and Frida peer over the edge and quickly find a group of boys. There are four in total, and all of them look way out of me and Frida's age range. The leader of the group, who I'm assuming is the tallest one, is laughing widely as he holds something shiny in his hands. I can't quite tell what it is, but he holds it up mockingly before taking off with his other goons.

"That was priceless!" one of them says.

I don't hear what they reply with, because soon enough they are out of earshot and all I could detect was more laughter coming from their mouths.

"Teenagers…" I mutter, "what in the world were they laughing about?"

"Maybe one of them told a funny joke," Frida suggested, "or they just did a prank on someone and it worked out really well."

Even with Frida's reassuring answer, I know that's not it. That one guy was holding something, and whatever it was he was showing it to someone else. Laughing all the while with a glint of something in his eye. I know it's weird to assume that he's just bad, but there was something about the whole situation that felt "off". Like a misspelled word in a well-written novel.

There was certainly something off about those teens…

* * *

My wrist hurts from writing all day.

Well, not _all_ day, but you get what I mean. I was just finishing off refining the first chapter when suddenly an uncomfortable sensation took over my hand. The more I tried to use my pencil, the worse my hand felt, so I decided to take a little break and instead read more of Harper Peterson's book for some inspiration.

Every book ever made by Harper is great, so I have a bit of wavering trouble picking between some of her books. I eventually decide to pick up "Individual" and quickly suck myself into the world of Haru Takata and her monster filled home.

It actually doesn't take long at all before I start laughing, crying, and simply adoring over Haru's character all over again. I just love how sweet and compassionate she is while also having some really bad flaws that she genuinely tries to fix over the course of the book with her monster family. It's really fun to analyze her character and see what works and what doesn't, which again isn't much since Harper's writing is amazing as always.

I try to take some notes in my mind as Haru continues her journey in the book for how to write my own main character. While translating my feelings to the character In the book helped a bit, I still need to know how to write her well, and Harper shows a lot of good writing in her novels.

Frida sits across from me, silently reading "Waving River" to all her heart's content. I think she's actually really into it, which makes me happy since not a lot of people I know actually care to read Harper's books, which is shocking to me since she's so well known.

I watch Frida as she hums along with the tune of Kyle's song, which means she's already up to chapter thirteen where the characters are stuck in that old house. She's read through quite a lot already, which is impressive since she's only had a few hours to read it.

"Are you enjoying it so far?" I ask, momentarily breaking out of my own book.

Frida barley looks away from her book before answering.

"Yeah, it's really good so far," she answers, "although I do have a question about Harper's style in her work."

"And what might that be?" I ask.

"Well…" Frida starts, "I've only read this book, but from what you told me about her other books have gotten me thinking. Why is memory loss always so common in Harper's books?"

I start to answer, but then my reply lingers tightly in my throat. Now that I think about it, a lot of Harper's books actually do center around memory loss. Turbines is about a world where a mother must find her child that she's forgotten, Red sky is about a teen who has to remember his past. Sometimes it isn't even the main character who has memory loss.

Why do so many of Harper's books have memory loss in them?

"I actually don't quite know," I say, "now that I think about it."

"It's kind of suspicious don't you think?" Frida says, putting down her book, "all of her books have some type of character who has amnesia, with no apparent explanation to why they really have them. And yet everything she writes is best sellers? Wouldn't the whole memory loss thing get boring after a while to readers?"

"Yeah… it would…" I reply, looking down at my book.

The hardcover of the book glows in the sun, but now something seems off about it that I can't quite place. It's like there's something to the book that's right in my face that I just can't see, which annoys me heavily.

"Do you think there might be a supernatural reason?" I ask, moving my fingers around to imitate a witch.

Frida slightly chuckles at my joke attempt.

"No, I don't think it's that," she replies, "and if that was the case, Hilda would be on top of it quicker than you could blink."

"Whose Hilda?" I ask.

"Just a friend I know," she says casually, "she's really into mysterious and mystical things. Like you, only she prefers to find them in the real world and challenge them head-on. Or sometimes they challenge her, it really goes both ways sometimes."

I'll admit, my eyes widen a bit when she says that. Mystical things in the real world? Besides maybe giants and elves which are pretty rare, everything else in the real world is pretty normal to me I guess. What else could possibly be out there though? Not to mention come in contact with a normal human like Hilda? The thought kind of excites me actually thinking of something interesting happening in Trolberg. Besides the whole bird parade, there might be other things to actually look forward to!

"That sounds so cool!" I say.

"Sometimes it is," Frida replies, "but sometimes it can be dangerous as well. So in a way, I kind of like hanging out here with you with no magic stuff to worry about."

"What mystical things have your friend found?" I say instantly after she's done.

"Well, technically she's found a whole lot actually," Frida says, "but I don't know if I should tell you or not because some of the stuff we deal with is kind of dangerous, and I don't know if we should-"

"Please Frida, I could totally take it," I say with confidence.

To be honest, I actually think if I came in contact with anything adventurous or dangerous I would die instantly. I definitely don't look or sound like the type of person who would be able to go on something like an adventure where death could possibly be involved, but it would be so cool to just simply hear about it.

"I-I don't know," Frida said, "do you really want to hear it?"

"Trust me, I _really_ want to hear what you guys have done," I say, "and don't worry about me going off looking for these things either. I just want to hear about it."

Frida takes a moment to answer, looking around a bit at my pictures which might mean she's considering telling me.

"Okay, I'll tell you," she starts.

 _VICTORY!_

Then the door to my room opens and Ethan pops his head in.

"Hey… am I interrupting anything in here?" he says, stepping into my room.

"Yes, Ethan!" I say, "actually you're interrupting a lot!"

Ethan rolls his eyes.

"Well sorry to barge in here uninvited," he sarcastically says, "but Frida's parents are leaving and our mom wanted me to inform you about it."

Me and Frida look at each other. Does she have to leave already? Just when things were getting good between us as well.

"Really?" I say.

"Yeah, she's got to go," Ethan says casually, "sorry."

There is silence for a few moments in the room. I don't know if it's because me and Frida are trying to find someway to protest against her leaving, or just because we have nothing to say.

"Well, I guess this means goodbye Frida," I say.

"I guess it does," she says, "until you come to Alhberg of course, then we'll see each other again. You are attending there right?"

I completely forgot that school even existed for a moment.

"Yep," I say, "me and Ethan will be there on Monday."

"And you better look out!" Ethan chirps, "the moment I step foot there, I'm going to take over the whole school!"

Ethan rushes out the door and down the hall before the sound of his bedroom door slamming shut reaches my ears.

"So... that's your brother," Frida says.

"Yep," I say extra glumly.

"He seems… enthusiastic," she says cheerfully.

"The right term would actually be _hyper,"_ I say, "but don't tell him I said that."

"Already noted," she replied.

We both quickly laugh at my brother's expense before the air of silence takes over again. Both me and Frida sit there on the bed, and I just start thinking of everything that's happened so far today with her. It's honestly felt like years since me and her have hung out in this bedroom.

And yet I also feel like I've already made a friend.

* * *

Long time huh?

I've been gone for a while, which I apologize for, but now I'm back and into the full swing of writing! I'll try to update this story more often, but that's for another day I guess. Hope you all enjoy this chapter, because soon we'll finally go to the school! And that's when things will get interesting.


	11. November 17th, Saturday (The Nightmares)

_Dear Journal_

This entry is going to be kind of weird because it's like midnight right now.

I should be going to bed, but I can't. Not only because I'm stressing about everything that's happened so far, but also because it's really hot in my bed.

It was never like this back at home. I remember being able to sleep so easily in my room whenever the stars came out. Some days I would just pass out on my bed and dream of being an author. Here though, I can barely get comfortable in my bed. I always feel like someone's looking at me through the terrace door, watching me sleep.

So to pass the time of unending creepiness, I'll just write in you until I get sleepy.

So I already told you mostly about Frida and how today was with her. When her visit ended, we said our goodbyes to each other and then she left with her family. I remember going up to my room and writing while hopefully thinking that me and Frida had become friendly acquaintances. After all, she really helped me gain the confidence I needed to work on my book, and I just hoped it solidified into some sort of tiny friendship between us.

Nothing really of importance happened during the rest of the day after Frida's visit. Ethan just sulked around looking angry and tired. Mom continued to unpack boxes and found this really cute cat snow globe dad had packed for us. And I continued to write upstairs in my own little nook as I tried to think of things that would make sense.

Then the day turned to night, and dad finally came back from work.

Only instead of coming home empty-handed, he came back holding a bunch of bags overflowing with food. And when I meant overflowing I meant OVERFLOWING. He had stopped by one of the stores and basically bought tons of food so we would have something to eat for a while. He didn't really notice how much he bought though, so we had this huge stockpile of food now to last us about a month or so before we had to go out grocery shopping again.

I'm not much of a food person that just craves to eat, but I did almost cry with joy when I saw everything he brought. I could tell Ethan felt the same way, but he was just laughing instead while pulling each box out. Mom, of course, was also eternally grateful for the food, but I could tell she was also worried about how we were going to store it all in the kitchen.

Turns out, we didn't have to worry. The cabinets and fridge we're mostly empty before we started putting things away, and by the time we're done sorting things into their place the kitchen was relatively full.

So we had a big hearty dinner in celebration of another full day in Trolberg, and then we went in our rooms to sleep.

So yeah, that was the entire day. Despite it not being very cool or anything, it was still a normal day overall.

The only thing of note that happened today other than Frida's visit and dad bringing home a huge pile of food was this strange thing that happened to me. I don't think it's a big deal or anything, but I'm only bringing it up because it's happened twice so far.

So, today I was writing and I started smelling something odd in the room. It was… something I can't really describe, but it smelled cold and stale all around me. Like, you know when your somewhere that's freezing cold, and your nose just feels like it's breathing in icicles? That's how cold the air felt, only it was affecting my nose and not my entire body.

Before I could investigate it, the smell quickly went away. I was standing there for a few moments confused before I just assumed it was the wind outside coming into my room.

But it happened again, five minutes ago actually. I was in my bed, kind of restless and trying to fall asleep when I heard something moving in the hallway. I couldn't really process what the sound was since right after that there was that strange cold smell again which stated to chill me to the bone. I looked out into the hallway, but only saw my parents door and our black rug that was lying across the floor unevenly.

This time, the terrace door in my room was closed, so no wind could enter into the house and cause that. Which means maybe it coming from somewhere in this house. It's not the AC either, because it doesn't usually get that cold even on the lowest setting. And besides, you can't really smell air conditioning anyway.

I think it might be coming from the attic since they usually are cold, but I guess it could be from anywhere. I hope it's nothing, but Frida did tell me supernatural things do happen in this city, so maybe I should be on the lookout for any strange occurrences.

So, that was it journal. Sorry for not writing in you more, but you know me. Since it's late, I should probably put you down now and go to sleep. After all, I got a big day tomorrow meeting the rest of my family in Trolberg. It's been kind of a while since I last saw them, and I hope we can catch up soon…

I wonder if the rest of my family is able to sleep easily in Trolberg. They're probably asleep right now, so I shouldn't really be thinking about them. Same goes for Nina and Ashly back at Newport. They're both probably in their rooms, sleeping snugly in their beds getting ready for the weekend. I wonder if they're thinking about me over there while they sleep. Probably not since they might still hate me, but I still hope that maybe they forgive me for what I did…

I hope so anyway…

Well, I guess that's it journal. I'm just going to go to sleep now and hope tomorrow things are good. Until next time. Goodnight journal.

 _Your sleepy dreamer_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

 _ **Lilith's POV**_

 _Everything was dark at first._

 _I couldn't see anything around me, it was just a blank space of nothing that I seemed to float effortlessly in. The only feeling in my body I could sense was immense pain pounding in my head. I struggled to breathe, the air around me seemed to lack oxygen. My brain felt drowned in confusion, pondering what was going to happen. I tried to flex my hands to warm myself, only to feel intense cold air running through them instead._

 _Even as I was floating in the void, staring out into nothing, I instantly knew I wasn't thinking clearly. I definitely should have been screaming or worrying or wondering what was happening. However, I was scared to think at all at the moment, terrified what the truth would bring._

 _Despite that fact, I still called out._

" _Where am I?" I said silently as I looked deeper into the black void, expecting a response._

 _Suddenly, the entire void shifted, and I found myself in a classroom._

 _It looked like a normal classroom with desks and chairs, but everyone around me was gone except the teacher. The teacher was a woman, writing something I couldn't see on the chalkboard. Her eyes were laser focused on the board, writing quickly and efficiently with encapsulated speed. She didn't even glance away once to look at something else._

 _Maybe this woman, or I guess teacher, could help me find out where I was._

" _U-um, excuse me?" I ask, "do you know where I am?"_

 _The teacher didn't turn around immediately despite my question, which kind of felt odd. Whatever she was writing on the board must've been important for her to ignore me._

 _While the teacher wrote on the board, I decided to take a quick look around the classroom to find something interesting. And it didn't take very long in my search to discover something since there were suddenly multiple students around me. All of them were writing down something in a notebook, not even glancing up to look around and face the teacher…_

" _What do you think you're doing?" someone sneers_

 _The voice came from the front of the room, and the tone sounded so hateful that it quickly made me my heart stop. I turned around and yelped when I found the teacher glaring in my direction._

" _Can't you see this is a writing class?" the teacher says, "where on Earth is your notebook supposed to be?"_

 _Writing class? Wait, so this place is for upcoming authors like myself. That means all these students are just like me. Only they have a notebook, and I don't._

" _Well? Where is it?" she asks._

 _At this point, my heart was racing since the whole class was looking straight at me now. There were twenty-four kids in total, and all of them couldn't stop staring at me. Some of them were laughing, while others shook their heads in disappointment. I could see the enjoyment in their eyes, they were loving this…_

 _I looked around my desk in hopes to find a notebook to use but quickly found that there was nothing around me to write in. Everyone had already gotten their last copies, and I came in emptyhanded._

" _O-oh, y-yeah," I reply nervously, "a-about that notebook, I-I just thought-_

" _You thought nothing child," the teacher interrupts, "you're not one of my students! Clearly, you're in the wrong class if you don't have my already listed materials!"_

 _The teacher quickly steps aside and allows me to see the board, which is when I finally realize how screwed I was. On the board was a list of everything needed for the class, except I didn't have a single item on the list at all. Everyone else of course did, but I didn't…_

" _I-I'm sorry…" I try to explain, "I didn't know…"_

" _Of course you didn't know," the teacher growls, "you know nothing at_ _ **ALL!**_ _"_

 _There was nothing I could do to reflect the hurtful words now, it had already done too much harm me. I just sat there feeling my heart twist around in pain as everyone in the class started laughing at me._

 _They had to let me at least explain…_

" _P-please, give me one more chance," I beg, "I really want to become a writer and I think-"_

 _The entire class burst into roaring laughter, stopping me short from finishing my sentence. They all couldn't even pause for a second, each of the children looking at me with disbelief and humor in their eyes. Each snort or giggle felt like a bullet shooting me in the heart. It was all too much for me that eventually my mouth just dried up in embarrassment._

" _You really think you'd ever become a writer?" the teacher said, "please, don't make me laugh. You'll clearly never amount to anything at all._ _ **EVERYONE KNOWS IT!**_ _"_

 _Her words rumbled through my throat and entered straight into my chest. I didn't want to cry in front of these people, but I could feel tears threatening to come out of my eyes. Everyone's laughter tore through my ears until I couldn't even hear anything anymore. It was all I could hear now, everyone just laughing at me with disbelief._

 _The teacher's eyes glowed bright green as she stared me down, looking deep into my fragile soul. She gripped the desk, causing wood to break off in her anger. She couldn't stop looking straight at me. It was all I could notice anymore, just her looking at me with her misty green eyes._

" _Do everyone a favor and GET OUT OF HERE!" the teacher roared._

 _The room shook with her words._

" _ **GET. OUT. OF. MY. CLASS!**_ _"_

 _Her desk exploded in a huge fit of fiery rage, sending everything shooting through the classroom. An unknown wind violently tore through the room, sending bits and pieces of my worn desks soaring into the darkness. Under me, the floor went away, and I was sent across the air until the wind felt like concrete itself. The darkness became blue, the world became dark._

 _I think I was screaming because my throat was burning. The laughter, despite now being out of the class still rushed into my ears. I could feel the shadow of my life itself pressing onto me until I finally crashed into the ground._

 _I was shaking, both outside and in. Whatever just took place had sent me into a complete state of shock, so much so that I didn't think I could get up. But eventually, I did. Despite how weak my legs were, I forced myself off the ground and found myself strangely in my bedroom sitting at my desk. Everything was the same, except for some reason the atmosphere just felt darker._

 _Had a woken up? Was that all a dream? If it was over then why did I still feel horrified? My bedroom brought me comfort, but now it feels like something is wrong. Everything looks mostly the same, but it isn't right. The windows are all blacked out, and it feels kind of grey and desolate. Is any of this real._

" _Lilith, what is this?" a familiar voice says behind me._

 _That voice, I know exactly who that is. They just came and visited us today! I spin around in my chair and quickly confirm that it's Frida standing there. How she got in my room I don't know, but now that's not important. I can tell from one look that she's angry at me right now. She looks straight at me, with complete disgust in her bright green eyes._

" _W-what is what?" I ask._

" _This of course!" she shouts, "do you really think this is professional?"_

 _Frida picks up all my notes and throws them into my face. She threw them at me so quickly that I almost miss them, but I can tell even in the blur that the notes contain bits of my story. The very same story that she helped me with. Why is she so mad all of a sudden._

" _I-it's the notes to my story…" I answer._

" _Story? You consider this a story?" Frida says, "do you even know how stories work?"_

" _I-I do…" I answer, "I swear I do…"_

" _If that's true," she says, "how come you've never finished one to begin with? Do you really think doodling in a journal makes you a professional author?"_

 _Before I can answer, she scoffs and turns away. Her words, this just isn't like her at all. I've only known her for a day… but I know that isn't how Frida would talk. I know it isn't her. And yet everything she says feels like a bomb to my chest. Why is she acting like this?_

" _I should never have come and visited your sorry mug," she says._

" _T-then why did you come and visit me then Frida?" I ask, "did you really not care at all when we hung out together?"_

 _A smirk appears on Frida's face as she stares me down with those dimly lit eyes…_

" _Of course I didn't care Lilith," Frida replies, "me and my parents only showed up out of pity for you and your revolting family."_

 _Did she just call my family revolting?! She's really done it. Despite my fear, no one ever calls my family revolting! Especially to me of all people!_

" _H-how dare you say that about them!" I shout, "y-you little-"_

" _ **What? Little what Lilith?**_ _" Frida says, "_ _ **come on, say it to my face…**_ _"_

 _Her voice rumbles the Earth, sending objects around me crashing onto the floor like dolls. She didn't even raise her voice at all, and yet It took her just a few words to make everything fall apart…_

 _My mouth start to dry up the second I see Frida's eyes. They're completely empty and void, without a trace of color inside them. What once used to be so positive and cheerful was now transformed into something much more horrifying then I could ever imagine._

 _The words I would've spoken have now vanished, and I'm suddenly back at square one._

" _Nothing to say?" Frida says, "how typical Lilith. But I shouldn't be so surprised. It's what I've come to expect from a lowlife like you at this point."_

 _I'm not… I'm not any of those things she calls me. But why does it hurt so much though? Why is she saying all this?_

" _I-I thought we were friends Frida…" I say._

 _Frida's eyes turn misty green and the room starts to shake._

" _Friends? With you? You thought we were friends?" she says coldly, "I would never even want to even_ _ **ASSOCIATE MYSELF WITH YOU!**_ _"_

 _That's all she had to say to me before everything in my body stops. My heart, my lungs, it all hurts. Everything hurts now. I thought I had things figured out, but I was lying to myself. All of this was a lie. Frida hates me, despite the little time we hung out together. She despises me…_

" _ **YOU DON'T BELONG IN TROLBERG LILITH! YOU DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE!"**_

 _Suddenly, Frida's hands instantly shoot out and hit me right in the face. The pain is blinding, but what really causes me to scream is when I'm shot back right over the terrace fence. I stumble over the fence, and it's all I can do to hold on._

 _Then, in a blink of an eye, Frida appears in front of me with a glowing smile on her face._

" _I'm going to do this world a favor and dispose of you_ _ **PERMANENTLY!**_ _" she shouts._

 _I don't have any time to hold up my hands before she shoves me over the railing._

 _For a second, it feels like I'm floating on nothing. The pounding of my heart felt like beating wings taking off. My eyes darted the landscape around me like a hawks golden gaze. There was no air, nor gravity to distract me from the feeling of effortless flight._

 _Then I felt the claws of death grab me by the throat and throw me down into the black abyss. The wind rushed by me, and I think at that point I started to scream. My body painfully twisted around, spinning through the air as gravity tore me down toward the Earth._

 _I felt like screaming, but I struggled to find my voice. Everything was falling…_

 _And then I smashed right into the ground. All that transpired right after I landed on the cold grass sent pain shooting throughout my body. Air quickly escaped from my lungs, turning my insides into a complete husk. My eyes strained to see. The legs I once used felt like they had been shattered._

 _And yet, I could still look around. I could still see everything around me. And what I found made my body stop working entirely._

 _It was the boat parade._

 _The boats, all of the lights, the crowd of people. They all were there just like last time. Only there wasn't any color. It was completely dark and void, with no sound coming from it once so ever. There was no music, no cheers. Everything was silent, and all I could see was the static figures of the Newport citizens._

 _My heart… it couldn't stop beating. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I think I'm losing breath right now. This can't be real. None of this is real…_

" _Lilith," someone says._

 _Wait… that's…_

 _I feel like I've been shot when I come face to face with Nina. She stands there, as her pink hair flies in the breeze. She's wearing her normal clothes, but this time they're all void of color. It's only her pink hair that makes her stand out._

 _And her eyes, they're a bright misty green…._

" _Lilith, why did you lie to me?" Nina says, "why did you lie to your best friend?"_

 _I try to say something in response, but it comes out as more of a shocked gasp instead. My throat became dry the moment she said that. I couldn't answer her question, not even if I wanted to. I was just paralyzed from head to toe, watching as Nina's eyes slowly filled with rage._

" _Why did you_ _ **lie**_ _to me Lilith!" Nina shouts, "am I not important enough for you?!"_

 _My mouth wouldn't move. I just watched her silently, trying not to cry._

" _What were you planning Lilith?" Nina asks, "were you just going to ditch me and Ash once you got to Trolberg and got some fancy new friends? Did you really want to get rid of us that badly?!"_

 _Nina started to walk toward me, her eyes glowing with bright green fury. There was something wrong with her walk, with her entire posture as a whole. It wasn't Nina, it didn't even look human. Yet I still couldn't speak I couldn't even talk…_

" _If you wanted to leave the group so badly then we would've happily let you," Nina says, "after all, we don't care about you Lilith. You're just a thorn in everyone's side!"_

 _Time stopped after Nina finished her sentence. I couldn't… I can't describe how it felt to hear her say that. It was like… everything that had happened before didn't even matter. It just came crashing down on top of me all at once…_

" _N-Nina… I-I'm sorry…" I manage to say._

" _You're sorry?" she repeats, "YOU'RE SORRY?! WE'VE WASTED YEARS OF OUR LIVES HANGING OUT WITH YOU, AND ALL YOU CAN MUSTER AFTER BETRAYING US IS AN_ _ **"**_ _IM SORRY!"_

 _The ground under me boils. The air around us starts to spin. The leaves begin to fly away. Nina's eyes glow brighter than the sun, and soon it's all I can see. Even her pink hair vanishes from view. All I can see is her eyes. Those bright ghastly green eyes…_

" _After so many years wasted on you, this is all I get?" Nina scowls, "well then fine. I'm done. I'm finished with you and you're horrible personality anyway. You can just take your thoughts and go to hell!"_

 _N-no! She can't leave me. I don't want to be alone anymore. I don't want our friendship to die!_

" _N-NO! PLEASE NINA DON'T GO!" I shout, "I'M SORRY ABOUT WHAT I DID. PLEASE, LET'S JUST BE FRIENDS AGAIN!"_

 _I grab onto her arm to try and get her to stay, but my fingers slip right through as her skin starts to melt off. Fingernails pop out of her hands. Her bright pink hair begins to fall out onto the floor. Her eyes begin to bleed blood red._

 _It's all I can do to keep in my scream after seeing her, but she doesn't seem to notice. She just stares at me with what little remains of her hollow eye sockets._

" _ **YOU WERE NEVER MY FRIEND TO BEING WITH LILITH!"**_

 _The world starts to calliopes on itself now. The boat in the water vanish. The people in the streets disintegrate. The grass under me falls away._

 _All that's left is me now._

 _Cold and alone…_

* * *

 **Lilith's POV**

My eyes shoot open.

I don't know if I gasp or scream first when I get up, but I do know that I must've made some type of sound because the birds resting outside fly away in a panic. My throat feels like it's on fire right now, so maybe I was screaming a bit before waking up. Or maybe I was talking for a long time in my sleep. Either way, my throat burns in pain.

My eyes were watery, so I had to wipe the tears away in order to see things again. I'm still in my bedroom, where everything was still the same.

A dim blue light evades my room and I see the faint shadows of trees and buildings sprawled on my ceiling. The sun must be rising right now, which means I probably woke up really early in the day. The crickets that once plagued my hearing are gone, and the sweet song of birds takes its place as the new morning greets me.

I'm okay, I'm safe now. I'm awake, and all of what happened was just a nightmare…

It wasn't like any nightmare I've ever had though. It was like a life-changing nightmare. A sort of dream you remember even after you escaped it. I can recall all the details, including the class, and Frida, and even Nina.

I remember it all.

It feels like vomit is going to rush up in my throat, so I fling myself out of bed and rush outside to my balcony. Despite being awake, I really needed some fresh air right now. Something to just breathe in and calm myself down…

When I step outside, I'm instantly taken away by how cold it is. The chill air around me shakes me to the bone, and before long I have to force myself to go back in and grab one of my jackets to stay warm. It's really cold outside, but I'm oddly thankful for the chill. It helps my mind slow down and start to think about things more clearly.

My ears detect all sorts of noises. From garbage trucks chugging down the street to birds chirping and flapping away in the trees. I even detect smaller noise like the sounds of someone talking in another house and hearings footsteps outside my room. Even though I'm awake, all this noise still makes me feel like I'm in some sort of dream.

I can still hear their voices replaying in my mind, even the quieter ones that I couldn't really remember that well. They all said those things with so much hate in their voice, so much disgust and amusement. That writing teacher, Frida, even Nina… they all said those things…

But it was just a dream, right? That wasn't real…

The morning sun above rises in the clouds, casting an pleasant glow in the streets. Nothing is wrong out here in the calm air. As long as I don't think about that nightmare then It's just another normal day for me. Just another day in Trolberg that must be repeated. But still, there was something wrong with that whole dream. Something that I can't shake off…

After that nightmare, there's no way I can sleep again, especially since it's like seven A.M right now. Why would I want to risk having another nightmare? For some sort of thrill or sensation? No way, I'm not that type of person. As much as I like to think I am, I'm really not…

I just hope it's all over now…


	12. November 17th, Saturday (Bad News)

_Dear Journal_

I write in you today asking for help.

While I know you can't really respond to this at all, I hope that maybe writing in you will help me see the solution to a question I so desperately need an answer to. And that question centers around my writing. I know you're probably tired of me moaning and groaning about how much I suck at making simple paragraphs or descriptive words, but please hear me out this one time.

I'm really struggling trying to write, and I don't think it's because I'm actually bad at it. I don't want to proclaim myself as the best writer ever or anything, but I feel like I'm at least a bit decent at writing stories. However, I think I'm starting to lose even more confidence with myself than I once did, which is worrying me. I was never the most confident person to begin with, but ever since I got to Trolberg I'm starting to feel worse.

Simple sentences to me now seem wrong, the dialogue I choose feels clunky and stupid, and no matter how hard I try I feel as if my pacing with the actual story is complete trash. I never used to think about these things as much in Newport, but now in Trolberg, I feel like I'm not the person I once was. The confident writer I once was…

I have a feeling a part of my problem is me missing my friends, Nina and Ashly were always there for me whenever I hid a road block or dead end with a story idea, and they were willing to stick billing to stick by me and help me through my troubles as I did. But now we're split apart and I don't feel as confident without them around. It's like… they were there for me… you know? And now…

I don't know.

The worst part is though, I don't think It's being apart from Nina and Ashly that is making me feel worse about myself. It's that nightmare I had last night. The one with Nina, and Frida, and that classroom. In the dream they all hated me, like purely despised me existing. Frida, who is the only person in this city besides my family that I like, completely ridiculed me in the dream. Nina, who was my closest friend, had so much hatred in her eyes when she looked at me. Like she was disgusted at me.

And then there was that classroom with all those other kids, laughing at me while the teacher ripped me down. Like I was the most worthless person on Earth. I wasn't anywhere near their level, just leagues below them. I didn't belong there… and now I feel like I don't belong here either. That dream just… kind of hurt me…

This whole thing just makes me wonder if Trolberg really was the best place to move to. I mean, I never hated it or anything, but being here just makes me feel… lost. I don't know what to do, and I feel like I don't deserve to be here. Is it wrong that I feel this way after a stupid dream?

I don't know, it's all just so frustrating journal.

Dad is calling me from the living room now. It must be time to go. At least we're going to meet the rest of the family today at our grandparents home. Maybe seeing my grandparents and Ivy will help me out of my slump. At least hopefully.

 _Your very worried child_

 _Lilith Parker_

* * *

 **Lilith's POV**

It felt like a bomb had been dropped on us after dad gave the news. It was so surprising that me and Ethan didn't say anything for a good solid second before the shouting started.

"THEY CANCELLED ON US!?" Ethan shouted.

Even when Ethan said it, I couldn't believe it was real. This shouldn't have been that big of an event since we usually do this all the time when we visited. But now we're living here, and all we've been doing is staying indoors. The trip to our grandparents was supposed to lift me and Ethan out of our slumps.

But now that plan has changed.

"Please don't shout Ethan," dad responds, "I haven't even told you why they canceled."

"I know exactly why. It's because they hate us? Right?" Ethan guessed, "Is this their punishment for us moving here?!"

"Ethan! Don't say things like that," mom said sternly, "they were heartbroken over the phone when they told us they had to cancel."

"Then why did they?" Ethan asked, "what reason could they possibly have?"

"Because their house was damaged in an accident last night," dad replied, "something broke in and caused some small damage."

Breaking and entering weren't that common at all in Trolberg, especially when it came to elders who lived alone. But now, hearing that very exact thing happening to _my_ grandparents completely rattled me to the core.

"Someone broke in?!" I shouted, "w-what happened?"

"They said _something_ broke in," dad says calmly, although judging from his face he doesn't look so happy about it either.

I hate to admit it, but I shook a bit when he said that. The thought of any possible creature sneaking into someone's home was a bit too much for me to bear. Back home, all we really had to deal with were stray cats roaming on our lawn, but now I guess the story is different here now that we actually live in Trolberg.

"What was it then?" I asked, "was it like a dog or something?"

"How about a troll?" Ethan added, "was it a troll?"

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of that. What if a troll actually broke into their home?

"They don't know," mom answered, "although they did tell us that the damage caused was so small that it definitely wasn't a troll."

"The damage that happened must've been caused by a small critter if anything," dad said, "they're trying their best to patch everything up. They called us to let us know.

Ethan scoffs behind me and slumps back into his chair.

"So? Who cares if some small animal ran around their home for a bit. If it was a big animal I'd understand. But we're supposedly talking about a bit of damage. It shouldn't change anything! I mean, we wanted to go see them!"

"We will Ethan," mom says, "we just have to be patient."

Hearing mom say that word triggered something in me that made me slump down in defeat. Even though I didn't like the outcome, she was right. We just had to be patient and wait. However long that may be.

Ethan though was having none of it.

"Patient? We've been nothing but patient ever since we moved here! And now you're telling us we have to wait even longer?!"

The anger in his voice surprised me. Ethan had his fair share of tantrums, but this one sounded even worse then the ones they came before.

"Calm down Ethan," dad says, "they're still plenty of things we can do-"

"Like what!" Ethan screamed, "everything in this city so boring and pointless. Nothing ever happens here! Back home, I was actually happy and had friends! Here though? Everyone is so mean to me! You made us leave all our friends behind for this stupid city!"

Ethan doesn't even give mom and dad a chance to reply back to him. He just quickly leaves us alone at the table and stomps himself over to the living room, grabbing the remote and quickly putting on some news random news channel. They talk about the weather and what not, but I mostly tune it out and keep my eyes on Ethan for just a bit. He looks sad, and angry, and annoyed all at the same time.

Despite that whole thing with him just now, I still feel bad for him. He's never been to Trolberg before, and with the introduction he's got so far to it, he must hate it here. No friends, no school, nothing to do. He must be having a harder time with the move then I am with the way he's acting right now…

"You know, it's not that bad here," I say, "there's still-"

"I appreciate your optimism and all," Ethan interrupts, "but with the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if whatever you brought up cancelled on us to."

Before I can even reply, he just turns around and goes back watching the news.

I try to rack up some words in my brain to somehow empathize with him, but nothing even remotely good comes to mind now. Mom and dad attempt to reason with him, but he just ignores them and starts to write things down.

It might be best to just leave him alone for now.

Now that Ethan's tantrum is over, the full weight of the circumstances finally dawn onto me. Since our grandparents cancelled on the trip, there's nothing else we can really do today. And that thought is a bit depressing. It only adds to my fear of the nightmare last night, which I don't want at all. I have to keep my mind off of things.

I quickly engage myself back into my journal once again and try to ignore the sad thoughts in my head. I think of nothing else except the pages that need to be filled, and soon everything slowly begins to tune out as I do.

Despite the news channel constantly buzzing in the back round, the house is relatively quiet right now. Dad and mom are murmuring to each other in the kitchen now, talking about how our grandparents and how empty the fridge is. And me and Ethan are just doing are own thing, not even acknowledging each other.

The peace and quiet is kind of nice, but I still can't help but shiver due to the lack of sound. There's something about no noise that makes me a bit worried right now, which only adds to the fear of my nightmare last night.

I stare over at Ethan for a quick second and see him scribbling something down in a notebook. I can't tell what he's writing, but I manage to catch a glimpse of some numbers on the page. I bet he's either doing some math, or counting down the minutes before we school starts.

At this point, I don't even mind school anymore. As long as we get to do something at least instead of sit here and wait for something to happen. Being cooped up inside this small house is really starting to tire me out. I mean, really the only interesting thing here is the attic upstairs, and we can't even explore that. It's all just the same…

If only everything wasn't so complicated…


End file.
